“I couldn’t walk” – Manchester City defender discusses injury troubles amid transfer talk | OneFootball

Nathan Ake has given an honest peak through the curtain into his struggles with injury over the course of the 2024-25 campaign.

The Netherlands international spent a large chunk of the season on the treatment table as Pep Guardiola and co surrendered their Premier League crown to Liverpool and exited the UEFA Champions League at the Round of 16 stage in disappointing fashion.

An FA Cup final defeat to Crystal Palace piled on the misery for Guardiola, who is set to be heavily backed in the summer transfer market by incoming sporting director Hugo Viana to introduce four to five first-team signings ahead of the new season.

Struggling to field a starting XI amidst a personnel crisis in central defence in January, Manchester City were forced to sign act fast and secure the arrivals of Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis midway to alleviate their compounding injury issues.

Ake returned to first-team training and thereby match fitness towards the closing stages of the Premier League campaign but failed to get any meaningful minutes under his belt, which succinctly sums up the issues Guardiola has dealt with in what the Catalan deemed the most challenging campaign of his managerial career.

“Personally it was a very disappointing and frustrating season,” said Ake in an interview with ESPN Netherlands whilst on international duty this week.

“Many injuries, mentally very tough. I was hardly fully fit for a single match. After the first hamstring injury with the national team, I came back too quickly.

“I played for a few months with a stress fracture in my foot. They said it was an old injury, but I think it came back.

Manchester City could see one centre-back leave in the coming months as they remain heavily stocked in the centre-back area, with Guardiola understood to have asked to keep players whom he can rely upon to play every three days in the squad as Viana and co conduct an audit of the Spaniard’s current squad.

Ake added: “I couldn’t walk during training sometimes. It was inevitable that the foot would break at some point.”

“But you push it because there was an emergency at Manchester City and then another injury comes along. In retrospect, maybe I should have taken more time.”

John Stones has been linked with a departure as the 31-year-old enters the final 12 months of his current deal at the Etihad Stadium – and the England international’s exit could mean Ake stays put, with Guardiola having requested the Manchester City board to not make too many changes to his squad for next season.