Revealed: When 15 Man City stars will return following World Cup exits & who could face Liverpool

Just one Manchester City player remains at the World Cup following the exits of Brazil, Netherlands, Portugal and England at the quarter-final stage over the weekend.

Julian Alvarez and Argentina remain the club’s only surviving representative from the 16 which began the tournament in Qatar last month, with La Albiceleste set to face Croatia in the semi-finals on Tuesday. Those not involved in the tournament began their preparations for the season’s restart last week. Erling Haaland, Riyad Mahrez, Cole Palmer and Stefan Ortega Moreno were among the few first-team stars who flew to Abu Dhabi last week as part of the club’s warm-weather training camp, although the team have now returned to the cooler climes of Manchester.

The first-team fitness plans will intensify this week as City eye next week’s return to competitive action, when they host Liverpool in the Carabao Cup on 22 December, and Pep Guardiola’s men warm-up with a friendly game against Girona this Saturday. At least two of City’s World Cup stars could be involved in that encounter, with Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne to return to training this week following the early exits of Germany and Belgium. Switzerland and Spain being eliminated at the last 16 in Qatar means Manuel Akanji, Aymeric Laporte and Rodri will all be back in training at the beginning of next week.

Those knocked out at the quarter-finals, which included Ederson, Nathan Ake, Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo, Bernardo Silva, John Stones, Kyle Walker, Kalvin Phillips, Jack Grealish and Phil Foden, will return to the club in the middle of next week. At present, there’s no indication which City players will be fit to face Liverpool and decisions will be made on an individual basis.

Players such as Ake, Silva and Stones, who were heavily involved for their nations during the World Cup, are less likely to be involved, while the likes of Ederson, Phillips and Grealish were used sparingly.

After the Carabao Cup tie with Liverpool, City return to Premier League action away to Leeds United (28 December) before hosting Everton (31 December). The champions begin the new year with an away clash against Chelsea (5 January).