Enzo Maresca’s pre-season outlook on Jack Grealish and Kalvin Phillips ahead of Man City east Asia tour | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca is keen to include Jack Grealish in Manchester City’s pre-season tour, though a late decision will be made given the 30-year-old’s fitness after foot surgery in February, as per a new report.

Grealish underwent surgery on a stress fracture in his left foot in January after sustaining the injury during Everton’s 1-0 win over Aston Villa, bringing a premature end to what had been an encouraging loan spell at Goodison Park in which the winger contributed two goals and six assists in 20 Premier League appearances before the setback.

The injury ruled out any possibility of Grealish featuring in Thomas Tuchel‘s England squad for the FIFA World Cup, and he spent the remainder of the 2025-26 campaign in rehabilitation returning to grass training for the first time after a five-month layoff and making steady progress, though not yet at the level required to commit to a demanding pre-season schedule.

Kalvin Phillips is in a different position – confirmed by Sam Lee as included in the tour squad, returning from his own period of limited involvement at the club to participate in Maresca’s opening pre-season programme alongside the players already present at the City Football Academy.

Both Grealish and Phillips return to the Etihad Stadium facing significant questions about their futures under a new manager who has spoken extensively about wanting to make his own assessment of every player before reaching decisions on their roles in his plans.

Report: Late call on Grealish fitness as Maresca signals personal interest in taking him on tour

According to Sam Lee of The Athletic, Maresca has made clear his keenness for Grealish to join the squad’s pre-season tour of Hong Kong and Seoul, where Manchester City are scheduled to face Inter Milan, a K-League All Stars XI and Atletico Madrid across a series of friendlies.

However, the decision on whether Grealish travels will be made late, with the former Aston Villa winger still not considered close to full fitness five months on from the surgery – a cautious but necessary approach given the complexity of a foot stress fracture and the risks of rushing a player of his physical profile back into a high-intensity pre-season environment.

Phillips’s inclusion is considerably more straightforward, with the England international having returned to full fitness and available to Maresca from the earliest stages of pre-season – a clean bill of health that at least gives him the opportunity to make his case to a new manager who will be evaluating every fringe member of the squad impartially during the weeks ahead.

Maresca’s personal desire to include Grealish on the tour – even with the fitness uncertainty – signals that the manager has not written off the 30-year-old and sees value in exposing him to the environment, even in a limited capacity, as early as possible in the pre-season schedule.

What does the situation mean for Grealish and Phillips at Man City?

For Grealish, the manager’s keenness to bring him on tour is an encouraging early signal after a period in which his future at the Etihad Stadium had become increasingly uncertain – with a £100 million signing who spent his final months under Pep Guardiola barely featuring now being offered a genuine pathway back under a manager who knows his qualities from the treble season.

The fitness caveat is real, however. Grealish has a year remaining on his contract with Manchester City and any inability to participate meaningfully in the pre-season tour would further compress the window in which he can stake his claim – with competitive football arriving quickly once City return from Asia.

For Phillips, tour inclusion represents progress after a summer in which his future at the club was openly discussed, and a chance to build the kind of daily relationship with Maresca that will determine whether there is a meaningful role for him at the Etihad Stadium this season or whether a departure becomes the more likely outcome.

Whether both players can make an impression during the pre-season fixtures that changes Maresca’s thinking about their involvement in 2026-27 remains the defining question for two of Manchester City’s most compelling and unresolved pre-season stories heading into the summer’s final weeks.