Guardiola says Man City ‘have a problem’ ahead of Napoli game but confirms midfielder is close to returning | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola says his Man City squad is set to be light on numbers again when they take on Napoli in the Champions League.

City were without Rayan Cherki, Rayan Ait-Nouri, John Stones, Mateo Kovacic, Omar Marmoush and Kalvin Phillips for their Manchester derby win over rivals Man Utd on Sunday.

Youngsters Stephen Mfuni and Divine Musaka were both included on the bench for Sunday’s win, and Guardiola says it will likely be a similar situation with his squad when they take on the Serie A champions.

But he did confirm that Mateo Kovacic is close to returning.

“Kova is coming back soon,” Guardiola said.

“The squad is really good, it’s just now we have a problem. We have 16 players and we need them back – Rayan Cherki, Rayan Ait-Nouri, John.

“When everybody is coming back we can rotate and people from the bench can make a good impact during the game.

“The fatigue is coming, it will come soon, and of course we need to have everybody involved.”