Pep Guardiola has no issue with how Manchester City players spend free time following Phil Foden incident

Pep Guardiola has said he has no issues with his players spending their free time at high-profile public events, following the incident involving Phil Foden at the boxing last weekend.

The Manchester City midfielder’s family suffered abuse which turned physical during last Saturday’s boxing match between Amir Khan and Kell Brook at the Manchester AO Arena.

The unsavoury incident was captured on camera, although Foden himself only featured in the video for a few seconds and it is believed he was verbally abused prior to the recording starting.

Despite the ordeal, Guardiola said he has no issues with his players going to public events such as boxing matches.

Asked if Foden had trained normally this week, he responded: “Yeah,” before adding he had not felt the need to discuss the incident with the 21-year-old. “It’s the world we are living in unfortunately,” he added.

“You have to understand that the players want to do it all the time. They play in front of 60,000 people. When they are losing, any team, it’s said they are not fighting and don’t have character or they do not have personality.

“It is another issue, you are wrong. They want to do well. There is no football player around the world that says: ‘I don’t care; I want to be whistled or booed’.

“But sometimes it happens and quite often we have to talk to them and help give them the solutions in these kinds of actions. Sometimes we do it and again they make a mistake again, and we have to do it again. It’s the only way to do it. They want to do well.”

In a statement after the incident last weekend City said: “The club is aware of a video which has circulated on social media showing Phil Foden and his family being harassed and abused.

“We are shocked and appalled [by] the nature of the abuse and ensuing assault on one of Phil’s family members. We will continue to give Phil and his family all the support and assistance they need.”