Pep Guardiola confirmed on Friday (22) that Rodri, who suffered an injury during the Club World Cup, will be available for Manchester City’s Premier League meeting with Tottenham. The coach said the midfielder’s recent absence was down to preparation rather than a lasting setback.<\/p>\n
“Rodri and Phil were not available for the last match, but it was only due to lack of training and rhythm. They are ready to play tomorrow,” Guardiola said in his press conference, signalling the pair could return to contention after missing the previous game.<\/p>\n
The manager also outlined absences for the fixture. “On the other hand, the Croatians Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic, along with Brazilian striker Savinho, will be absent for the ‘Citizens’ against the ‘Spurs’ in this second round of the English league.” Those players will not be available for selection against Tottenham.<\/p>\n
Rodri, 29 years old and current Ballon d’Or, faced a difficult period last season when a serious knee injury kept him sidelined for almost all of the campaign. He returned in May but then suffered another problem during City’s 4-3 defeat to Al-Hilal in the round of 16 of the Club Cup, an issue linked to his earlier layoff.<\/p>\n
Guardiola stressed his expectation for a settled, consistent Rodri. “I just want the regular Rodri that we all know, that’s all. I have no doubts about his potential and his qualities. For now, he remains the best in the world. In a few months, another player will be chosen , but for now it’s him,” he said, before adding: “It’s just a matter of consistency and that comes with training, week by week, training after training, game after game, minute by minute,” he explained.<\/p>\n
City began the new campaign with a 4-0 win over Wolverhampton following a disappointing previous season, but Guardiola urged perspective. “It’s just one game. I like many things I’m seeing, in training and behaviors. I like it, but I’m not a magician to know what will happen,” he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pep Guardiola says Rodri will be available for Tottenham; Gvardiol, Kovacic and Savinho absent. Now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238],"tags":[242,310,180,323],"class_list":["post-1974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","tag-injury","tag-pep-guardiola","tag-player-news","tag-rodri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1975,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974\/revisions\/1975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}