Manchester City head into Saturday\u2019s Manchester Derby still searching for their first Premier League win of 2026 and carrying a substantial injury list that will shape selection at the Theatre of Dreams.<\/p>\n
Defensive absences have been most disruptive. The hamstring problem Dias picked up at the start of the year will rule him out for a few more weeks. Guardiola suggested the Portuguese international will be “back soon” in his pre-match press conference, but the manager had earlier projected Dias to miss up to six weeks after the extent of the setback became clear following the 1\u20131 draw with Chelsea on Jan. 4.<\/p>\n
That same Chelsea match also left Gvardiol with a fractured leg. Guardiola confirmed the Croatian international “won\u2019t be back anytime soon,” and Gvardiol is now set to miss much of the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n
Guardiola has been forced to rely on unexpected options at centre back, even handing a teenager who spent the first half of the season on loan at Watford a start alongside Abdukodir Khusanov. Retaining Max Alleyne in the XI would be a bold call, yet the manager\u2019s choices may be limited while the defensive injury situation remains unchanged.<\/p>\n
Midfield concerns persist as well. Gonz\u00e1lez, who joined the club a year ago and had shown signs of settling into the base of City\u2019s midfield, has been sidelined in recent outings with a minor bone injury sustained against Brighton & Hove Albion on Jan. 7. He is \u201cseemingly back in contention\u201d for the derby, with Guardiola saying Friday\u2019s training session will determine if he can play. City have Rodri available if Gonz\u00e1lez is not declared fit.<\/p>\n
Off the pitch, City have agreed a deal to sign Crystal Palace defender Marc Gu\u00e9hi on Friday as they plan for life after John Stones. Stones has not featured since the start of December because of a thigh injury and is poised to move on when his contract expires at season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
Other absentees include Marmoush, who has been playing for Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations after scoring twice but whose side were eliminated by Senegal in the semi-finals; a young Norwegian winger sidelined with a hamstring issue; and Savinho, whose New Year\u2019s Day knock at Sunderland will keep him out of action for a “long time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
City enter the derby short at centre back and missing several squad members through injury. in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1056,172],"tags":[1211,1384,1047],"class_list":["post-5989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-city","category-epl","tag-africa-cup-of-nations","tag-broken-leg","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5989","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=5989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}