Pep Guardiola confirms Man City star will miss Sheffield United clash through injury

Pep Guardiola has confirmed that Nathan Ake will miss Manchester City’s FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield United on Saturday.

The defender picked up a hamstring injury in the second half at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday as City eliminated Bayern Munich from the Champions League, which immediately put his participation in this weekend’s game into doubt, as well as next week’s crucial Premier League clash against Arsenal.

Speaking ahead of the Wembley clash, Guardiola revealed Ake will not be involved but he is not sure whether the Dutchman will be fit to face Arsenal.

“He's not ready for tomorrow but I don’t know the damage. I think today they make the final test to know exactly what he has,” Guardiola said.

With Ake out, Aymeric Laporte is the obvious choice to come into a hybrid centre-back/left-back role, although Rico Lewis is another option. Guardiola gave no indication of who could replace Ake, but did explain that he is concerned about the the fatigue levels of his players after a draining Champions League second leg against Bayern.

Asked about the players’ fitness levels, Guardiola said: “I have to see, I have to smell and talk. I have to see the players how they feel today. After the game in Munich they couldn’t really celebrate in then locker room because of how exhausted they were.

“We couldn’t have [faced] more sequences of passes in Munich that help us to rest much with the ball l, they ran a lot. I’ve rotated a lot in previous season and it wasn’t good. I have to think about, I have many doubts about the line-up. I have to see the training sessions today and talk with many of them and see what is my feeling.

“Of course they are going to say they want to play, that is difficult to find the players who don’t want to play. But at the same time, we have to be sure that the people are in the condition. It’s not just about this game, it’s because we’ve come from many games every three days, knowing that if we lose we are out. The mental fatigue is always big. We have to see, to wait.”