Pep Guardiola confirmed Rodri will miss Manchester City\u2019s next two fixtures but suggested the midfielder\u2019s absence should not be prolonged. The defensive midfielder pulled up clutching his hamstring in the first half of City\u2019s trip to Brentford at the start of October and had hoped to return after the international break, yet he did not make the bench against Everton.<\/p>\n
Guardiola gave a clearer timetable while warning of the risks associated with muscular injuries. \u201cI don’t think so for Villarreal\u2014or Aston Villa,\u201d the Catalan coach mused. \u201cIt\u2019s not long, but it\u2019s muscular and you have to be careful.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve tried so many times, we\u2019ve tried to not take a risk, but we have not been able to [manage] that. So we will see.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Rodri\u2019s absence Nico Gonz\u00e1lez has often been used to occupy the deeper midfield role. The draft also notes Mateo Kova\u010di\u0107 as a more natural fit: the Croatia international brings greater experience inside Guardiola\u2019s system and, according to the reporting, possesses \u201ca special quality\u201d on the ball that suits the role.<\/p>\n
Kova\u010di\u0107\u2019s availability has been limited after a long injury layoff. For the first time since undergoing Achilles tendon surgery over the summer, the 31-year-old returned to the pitch against Everton, with Guardiola introducing him for four minutes as part of a cautious reintroduction to match action.<\/p>\n
On Kova\u010di\u0107 the manager was clear about the player\u2019s importance: \u201cKova\u010di\u0107 has a special quality with the ball to keep it,\u201d City\u2019s manager gushed. \u201cWe cannot forget he\u2019s come from surgery, a three or four-month injury. We need his quality back. ]<\/p>\n
City will manage both men carefully as they plan for upcoming fixtures while monitoring recovery from a hamstring problem and post-surgery fitness respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guardiola says Rodri will miss the next two matches; Kova\u010di\u0107 returns after Achilles surgery, cautiously eased back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238],"tags":[1084,1165],"class_list":["post-3927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","tag-achilles-injury","tag-kovacic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3927","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=3927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}