Man City confirm major injury boost with encouraging Rodri update
Rodri has been out of action since September (Picture: Getty) Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola revealed that midfielder Rodri could make a return from his ACL injury this season. Rodri was expected to miss the entire season after having to undergo knee surgery following his ACL injury against Arsenal in September. The Ballon d’Or winner’s presence in City’s midfield has been sorely missed, with Guardiola’s side seeing their title defence fall by the wayside after a dismal run late last year. The signing of Nico Gonzalez from Porto has provided some cover in the middle of the park, but City will still be eagerly awaiting Rodri’s return. And after the Spaniard returned to individual training late last week, Guardiola revealed that the 28-year-old could feature before the end of the campaign. Get personalised updates on your team every day Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you. ‘The fans must know they are not the only ones who are excited,’ said the City boss after his side’s 3-1 FA Cup win over Plymouth to book their place in the quarter-finals ‘It’s been five months or six months. But [it’s] one step at a time. We don’t have to make stupid decisions [for him] to come weeks earlier. Rodri could return before the end of the season (Picture: Getty) ‘He’s not close to coming back, but he’s touching the ball and is in the locker room. He feels confident and happy. ‘I could not expect before [him to return] before the end of the season, not even for the [Club] World Cup, but maybe it’s going to happen.’ https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGoOds-uyDc/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Asked if Rodri could feature at Wembley if City were to reach the FA Cup final, Guardiola replied: ‘I don’t know. Quarter-finals we’ll see. We have to deserve to be in Wembley for the semi-finals first.’ With City already out of the Champions League, Guardiola’s stretched squad will have some much-needed breaks in midweek for the first time in a while. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page And Guardiola is hopeful that they can put the time to good use as they look to ease new players into their squad and rebuild ahead of a fresh title push next season. ‘It’s quite new for us, he said. ‘I would say in nine years it’s never happened. ‘That means that we are not doing well, but yes, we are going to take this time off to refresh, because always I believe in this competition – people don’t believe it – but it’s about quality, not quantity. ‘And to refresh and we are going to make four good training sessions to prepare our important, really, really important game against (Nottingham) Forest. ‘We’re going to refresh things, practice things, and lift the rhythm, like normally when you cannot train because we play every three or four days, you cannot increase that. And refresh things that we cannot do that we have to do better.’ City can leapfrog Forest and move into third place in the league when the two sides meet next Saturday at the City Ground. For more stories like this, check our sport page. Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola revealed that midfielder Rodri could make a return from his ACL injury this season.
Rodri was expected to miss the entire season after having to undergo knee surgery following his ACL injury against Arsenal in September.
The Ballon d’Or winner’s presence in City’s midfield has been sorely missed, with Guardiola’s side seeing their title defence fall by the wayside after a dismal run late last year.
The signing of Nico Gonzalez from Porto has provided some cover in the middle of the park, but City will still be eagerly awaiting Rodri’s return.
And after the Spaniard returned to individual training late last week, Guardiola revealed that the 28-year-old could feature before the end of the campaign.
Get personalised updates on your team every day
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.
‘The fans must know they are not the only ones who are excited,’ said the City boss after his side’s 3-1 FA Cup win over Plymouth to book their place in the quarter-finals
‘It’s been five months or six months. But [it’s] one step at a time. We don’t have to make stupid decisions [for him] to come weeks earlier.
‘He’s not close to coming back, but he’s touching the ball and is in the locker room. He feels confident and happy.
‘I could not expect before [him to return] before the end of the season, not even for the [Club] World Cup, but maybe it’s going to happen.’
Asked if Rodri could feature at Wembley if City were to reach the FA Cup final, Guardiola replied: ‘I don’t know. Quarter-finals we’ll see. We have to deserve to be in Wembley for the semi-finals first.’
With City already out of the Champions League, Guardiola’s stretched squad will have some much-needed breaks in midweek for the first time in a while.
And Guardiola is hopeful that they can put the time to good use as they look to ease new players into their squad and rebuild ahead of a fresh title push next season.
‘It’s quite new for us, he said. ‘I would say in nine years it’s never happened.
‘That means that we are not doing well, but yes, we are going to take this time off to refresh, because always I believe in this competition – people don’t believe it – but it’s about quality, not quantity.
‘And to refresh and we are going to make four good training sessions to prepare our important, really, really important game against (Nottingham) Forest.
‘We’re going to refresh things, practice things, and lift the rhythm, like normally when you cannot train because we play every three or four days, you cannot increase that. And refresh things that we cannot do that we have to do better.’
City can leapfrog Forest and move into third place in the league when the two sides meet next Saturday at the City Ground.
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
