Manchester City expect Mateo Kova\u010di\u0107 to be sidelined for several months after further surgery to address an Achilles issue. The 31-year-old had returned to training following a summer operation, but more pain on his comeback has prompted another spell out.<\/p>\n
Guardiola had cautiously welcomed Kova\u010di\u0107 back last month, but the manager confirmed the midfielder faces another absence. “He will be out for a while,” said Guardiola. “He still has a problem with the ankle, a little calcification still there. We\u2019ll wait on him for the last part of the season.”<\/p>\n
The Daily Mail\u2019s Jack Gaughan reported that further surgery was required and that the recovery could keep Kova\u010di\u0107 out until next February or March. Sportske Novosti added that Kova\u010di\u0107 was wearing a protective boot after undergoing the procedure last Friday, that the surgery went to plan, and that the midfielder will have his stitches removed next week.<\/p>\n
Even if Kova\u010di\u0107 does not play a major role for City this season, there is a longer term perspective. Croatia manager Zlatko Dali\u0107 expressed optimism about his availability for the 2026 World Cup in North America, saying: “He [Kova\u010di\u0107] has similar problems to those he had four or five months ago. We believe he\u2019ll be with us at the World Cup.”<\/p>\n
Manchester City have options in midfield while Kova\u010di\u0107 recovers. Nico Gonz\u00e1lez has stepped up, and Guardiola can also call on Rodri and Tijjani Reijnders at the base of midfield. The club will monitor Kova\u010di\u0107’s progress as he recovers from the latest procedure, with the immediate focus on ensuring the operation’s success and his return to pain-free fitness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mateo Kova\u010di\u0107 faces months out after further surgery; club and Croatia cautious over recovery. soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4458,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1056,172],"tags":[1084,947,1247],"class_list":["post-4459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-city","category-epl","tag-achilles-injury","tag-ankle-injury","tag-mateo-kovacic-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4459","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=4459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}