Man City suffer Dias blow but book Antoine Semenyo medical with the Ghana international due for medical on Thursday.
Pep Guardiola’s defensive injury issue will worsen as Man City will be without Rúben Dias for up to six weeks due to a hamstring injury, prompting the head coach to acknowledge that the team might look to make a transfer. Marc Guéhi, the captain of Crystal Palace, is intriguing.
After playing his last game for Bournemouth on Wednesday at home against Tottenham, attacker Antoine Semenyo is scheduled for a medical on Thursday. City is considering making a bid for Guéhi. Semenyo’s over £65 million release clause will be paid by City.
In Sunday’s draw with Chelsea, Dias and Josko Gvardiol—who has a broken shinbone—were substituted, leaving City with 13 healthy senior outfield players for Brighton’s Wednesday visit. In order to improve central defence options in the near future, Max Alleyne, an academy product, has been brought back from a loan at Watford.
“Khusa [Abdukodir Khusanov] and Nathan [Aké] are back as central defenders, Max came back from the loan – I appreciate what Watford have done for the young lad,” Guardiola said. “The rest, Omar [Marmoush] and Rayan [Aït-Nouri] are at Afcon, and injuries to John [Stones], to Oscar Bobb.”
It’s unlikely that Gvardiol will play again this season because he needed surgery. Stones has a thigh injury, but there is no estimated time of return.
Stones’ contract expires in the summer, and Guardiola said the 31-year-old would not be given new terms. Stones has missed 59 games for both club and country over the last 18 months.
The manager was upbeat regarding the challenge facing his squad. “With the spirit that we have, always we can cope,” Guardiola said. “Maybe we will get something but it’s completely different, we are not going to buy four or five players like happened last season.”
Guardiola added: “I prefer not to have that challenge [of managing the injury crisis], to be honest. It is what it is. To fight for the titles to be there, you need demanding schedules for every season, and unfortunately it happened last season. Last season it happened in November, this season happened in January a little bit, but we have enough. We don’t have much, we have first-team 13, 14 players. Some of them are coming back, and go for it.”