Manchester City handed major injury blow as midfielder ruled out for up to three weeks confirms Pep Guardiola | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has confirmed that Manchester City midfielder Claudio Echeverri will be sidelined for up to three weeks with an ankle injury.

The Argentina international made a huge impression on supporters during his full debut for the club on matchday two of the FIFA Club World Cup group stage, securing his first start for Manchester City since arriving from River Plate last January.

Having made two brief, but promising, appearances for the club during the tail-end of the last season, Sunday night’s start against Al Ain was the first real opportunity for Echeverri to show exactly why Manchester City have put so much faith into his talents.

And despite sustaining what appeared to be a momentary fitness scare earlier in the first-half, the 19-year-old continued to step-up to a direct free-kick just outside of the Al Ain penalty area, to fire home and double Manchester City’s advantage.

But by the time half-time would come, it would be the end of the night for the midfielder, as he was withdrawn with Phil Foden coming on in his place, before being spotted on the training ground on Tuesday on crutches and wearing a protective boot around his right foot.

Now, speaking to reporters ahead of Manchester City’s final group stage game of the FIFA Club World Cup, Pep Guardiola has confirmed the severity of Claudio Echeverri’s ankle injury sustained earlier this week.

“He has some problems in the ankle. It will be two weeks, three weeks out. We feel so sorry for him, from all of us,” Guardiola confirmed around Echeverri’s recovery timeframe.

He continued, “But yeah, we’re going to play new players, and in the next game new players, too… And in the second-half [vs Juventus], too.”

The Manchester City manager continued on the subject of his line-up against the Italian giants by hinting at significant alterations set up for the second-half of the contest at the Camping World Stadium.

“I’ve made the selection tomorrow, the line-up thinking in the second-half, because with these [weather] conditions we’re not ready to play in the rhythm we’re playing for 90 minutes,” Guardiola explained. “So, hopefully we could make and do more substitutions, but no it’s fine!”

With attendances having been discussed heavily at this summer’s tournament, and very limited crowds in some games involving lesser teams, Pep Guardiola hopes to see a significant crowd at his side’s heavyweight clash on Thursday night.

But the City head coach also had some words of advice for those planning on attending as he told reporters, “Hopefully we can do a good game and the people can come! The only thing I can advise the people is to bring a lot, a lot of water, hats, towels on the necks, because I think it will be tough!”

Manchester City come into the clash with Juventus knowing that only a victory will be enough to secure themselves a first-place finish in Group G, and a match-up against the runners-up of Group H in the last-16 of the Club World Cup.