Aymeric Laporte has revealed he played through the pain to help Manchester City seal the Premier League title after injuring his knee with two games left to play.
The 27-year-old withdrew from the Spain squad on Wednesday for their upcoming Nations League fixtures citing the knee injury that forced him off during City’s 5-1 win at Molineux on 11 May.
Since then, Laporte started City’s final two fixtures against West Ham and Aston Villa as injuries to Ruben Dias, John Stones, Nathan Ake and Kyle Walker left Pep Guardiola to patch up his defence.
City took their fourth Premier League title in the last five years by a single point ahead of Liverpool after coming from 2-0 down to beat Villa 3-2 on Sunday.
“Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend the national team’s next games because of the injury I picked up against Wolves that will need further treatment,” Laporte wrote on social media.
“I have been uncomfortable with my knee since then, but I wanted to help the team to the end, and I am glad I did so.
“Now that the season is over, I will follow the medical process and start rehab to get back to full fitness quickly. We have another very exciting season ahead of us with big goals to achieve.”
Spain are due to host Portugal on 2 June before matches away and at home to Czech Republic either side of a trip to Switzerland on 9 June.
