Manchester City suffer major injury blow in Villarreal win ahead of Aston Villa trip | OneFootball

Nico Gonzalez is a doubt for Manchester City’s Premier League clash with Aston Villa at the weekend after suffering a foot injury in Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Villarreal in Spain.

Pep Guardiola’s side maintained their fine run of form as goals from Erling Haaland and Bernardo Silva in the first-half secured a comfortable three points for Manchester City at Estadi de la Ceràmica.

Haaland netted for a 12th consecutive game in all competitions for club and country to open the scoring, with Silva adding a 40th minute header to give the visitors comfort ahead of the interval in east Spain.

However, City were handed a fresh injury blow in the win as Nico Gonzalez hurt his foot in the second-half against Villarreal, with Guardiola confirming that the 23-year-old injured his feet to raise doubts over his fitness ahead of Sunday’s Premier League game against Aston Villa. “It’s a knock in his feet. Hopefully (he will be fine),” Guardiola told TNT Sports after the win.

Gonzalez has been one of Manchester City’s best players this season and has anchored the midfield reliably in the continued absence of Ballon d’Or winning midfielder Rodri, who suffered a hamstring injury against Brentford earlier this month and is yet to return to fitness.

Rodri’s injury issues – after a brief spell of action following his recovery from an ACL rupture sustained 12 months ago – have allowed Gonzalez to stamp his mark on the starting XI, with Guardiola waxing lyrical of the Barcelona academy graduate, who joined Manchester City from Porto for £50 million in January.

With Ilkay Gundogan joining Galatasaray in the final days of the summer transfer window and Mateo Kovacic only recently returning to fitness after undergoing Achilles surgery in the summer, Gonzalez has gone from strength to strength in the holding midfield position in his first full season at the Etihad Stadium.

Guardiola and his coaching staff will be very careful in managing Rodri’s workload in the months to come but there will prayers chanted in Manchester that Gonzalez’s issue is nothing serious – with City lacking in depth in midfield should the Spaniard join Rodri on the treatment table.

Kovacic made his first appearance in six months at the weekend as he came on in the 2-0 win over Everton and though the Croatia international is one of City’s most experienced and reliable players, Guardiola will be understandably worried if Gonzalez does spend a few weeks on the sidelines.

Gonzalez is someone City cannot afford to lose to injury when Rodri is undergoing a fitness rut, with the former replaced by Kovacic after 57 minutes of action against Villarreal on Wednesday evening.

Manchester City have turned a corner since their early season slump, with their rich vein of form helping the Blues climb to second place in the Premier League and fifth place in the UEFA Champions League group-phase.

Guardiola is expected to provide an update on Gonzalez when he faces the press on Friday ahead of Sunday’s trip to Birmingham, with question marks over when Manchester City can expect to see Rodri and Abdukodir Khusanov back in action.