Injury update: Triple defensive boost for City but Kovacic out | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola says he could have a number of injured players available for Saturday’s visit of Tottenham Hotspur.

City’s squad has been decimated with various fitness issues for the past couple of months, but some of those problems look to be improving – though there was a further blow with news that Mateo Kovacic could be out for up to a month.

“Some of them [could be available], yes,” said Guardiola when asked for a squad update at his Friday press conference,

“John [Stones] trained good, Manu [Akanji] trained good. Nathan [Ake] is coming back to training, so we didn't have any centre-backs and now we have three.

“Ruben [Dias] is out but hopefully back soon. Some players recover better.

"These 10 days some players recovered a little. I don’t know if they are ready to play 90 minutes or play from the beginning but to see the training session and see their faces was a really good boost for all of us."

However, the news was not all positive with the boss revealing Kovacic has returned from international duty with Croatia – and youngster Max Alleyne – injured.

“He (Kovacic] will be a while - three weeks or a month. More or less,” said Guardiola.

“Max Alleyne is not fit as well was injured from national team – England U20 - because they push our limits and come back injured.

“Players go to the national team and train - U21 in the morning - afternoon with U20 after training two games, He us not fit, we will lose him. It is what it is.”

Jeremy Doku, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish have all trained this week, after withdrawing from their national team squads, and could be available for selection, though Guardiola gave no specific update on the trio.

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