Pep Guardiola gives injury update on three Man City players ahead of clash with Crystal Palace
The Manchester City manager spoke about Jack Grealish, Nathan Ake and Aymeric Laporte.
Pep Guardiola has revealed he is not confident Jack Grealish will be fit in time to face Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon.
Manchester City welcome the Eagles in a 3pm kick-off but could have limited numbers for the game.
The Blues have three injury doubts ahead of the clash, while Luke Mbete and Aymeric Laporte are set to miss out, also due to injury.
Guardiola gave a vague response when asked about team news on Friday afternoon, but shed more light on his options in the second half of his press conference.
Asked about Grealish, Guardiola said it looks unlikely he’ll be fit in time for the clash with Palace.
“I will see, but I don’t think so,” said the Catalan. “He trained alone [this week], not with the team.
“He feels better but if we had a press conference after training I would tell you [if he could play]. My feeling now, I don’t think we will be ready for tomorrow.”
Defensive issues
City suffered another defensive blow last week when Nathan Ake came off with a groin issue against Newcastle United.
Guardiola hinted at the time it wouldn’t be an instant return to the team for the Dutch international, and means that, along with the absence of Laporte, City only have two fit centre-backs at present.
“We have a problem in central defence, without Nathan and Ayme we have just two central defenders,” Guardiola explained. “Hopefully Ayme comes back soon because we struggle when we have many in the same positions.”
Asked about the severity of Ake’s problem, the former Barcelona manager responded: “Not much. Yesterday he started running and feels good.
“Nathan is coming back soon,” he added, “I think in the end of September, early October, Ayme will be back too.”
Kalvin Phillips is also a doubt for the Blues this weekend after he picked up an arm injury in the 3-3 friendly draw with Barcelona on Wednesday.