Pep Guardiola claims three injured Man City defenders won’t play again this season

Pep Guardiola has said Ruben Dias, John Stones and Kyle Walker won’t play again for Manchester City this season due to the injury.

Dias was replaced at half-time in Sunday’s 5-0 win over Newcastle United, with Fernandinho coming on in his place, while the other two defenders missed the game altogether.

Stones suffered a muscular injury in the recent win over Brighton & Hove Albion, which he exacerbated against Real Madrid in last week’s Champions League first leg.

Meanwhile, Walker has struggled with an ankle injury over the last few weeks, and he had to come off in the midweek loss to Madrid after suffering a recurrence of the problem on Wednesday.

But Guardiola revealed after the Newcastle game that the trio may not play again this season.

“We have just three defedners for these [final three games],” he said in the post-match press conference. “Ruben, Kyle and John [are] out for the season.”

Asked to clarify, Guardiola also said Dias had sustained a hamstring injury, while he also revealed Nathan Ake is likely to miss the midweek trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers due to injury.

“Problem in the ankle,” the Catalan explained. “It happened in the game against Leeds. We have Joao [Cancelo], Oleks [Zinchenko] and Aymer [Laporte] plus maybe Fernandinho [as fit defenders],” he added.

“It’s CJ [Egan-Riley] or [Luke] Mbete. In this situation it’s not a problem, Rodri can play there. We have the academy. Everyone has to do extra.

“[We have] 13 players and a half for these games and everyone has to do more and more to help our absence. We arrive with problems and that’s all.”

City beat Newcastle 5-0 on Sunday thanks to goals from Raheem Sterling (2), Laporte, Rodri and Phil Foden, and the result moves them three points clear at the top of table.