Pep Guardiola calls for patience at Man City amid latest Rodri injury woes | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola insists he is certain that Rodri will return to his best but said Manchester City have to be patient until the Ballon d’Or winner is ready to start every game again.

The midfielder has only made one brief substitute appearance for City in the last month, against Bournemouth, and Guardiola is waiting to see if he will be able to face Liverpool on Sunday.

Rodri has only started seven matches for City since suffering a cruciate ligament injury last September and Guardiola believes he will have to be cautious with his fellow Spaniard this season.

“I am 100 percent convinced he will be back and will play - it will take a little bit of time to reach the level that he had. But we have to be sure he’s there [physically],” he said.

Rodri last started at Brentford on 5 October when he limped off and Guardiola reflected on the busiest week of the midfielder’s season, when he began a Manchester derby and then against Napoli and Arsenal in swift succession.

“Arsenal, three days before [that] Napoli, then United, so believe me Rodri can play one game a week but if we play Sunday then after Tuesday, Saturday after Wednesday - then go to national team - this is another kind of competition,” added the City manager.

“To play at that level is another competition, it’s another way. You play one game a week you recover perfectly. The problem is every three days. When a long injury the history says the year after you have slight problems - we try to avoid it, we are desperate to avoid it, but it happens, the stats say that - for one year you stop [playing].

“Me as a manager, when I see Rodri and the doctors and physios say ‘Rodri is ready’, then he is going to play. We have to be careful from now on and be sure that there’s not a setback.”

Rodri’s early-season has been hampered by injury setbacks (Getty Images)

Guardiola praised Rodri for being the “best teacher” Nico Gonzalez could get as he has been operating as City’s defensive midfielder in the absence of the Champions League winner.

He added: “All I want is Rodri to be happy, he starts to smile and enjoy again. It’s been tough. He’s one of the more competitive football players I’ve ever met in my career and how he pushes his mates is unbelievable.

“I wanted him to even enjoy the process of being out for a while. The toughest period is gone, the third month, fourth month, fifth month, sixth month with a long injury. Now is the end, he has to try to stay ‘ok, I’ll be back around the corner and be with the team to do it’.

“But being outside when he is involved and with us he’s always incredibly positive with Nico, helping him a lot. I think Nico had the best teacher in that position.”