John Stones has revealed he's feeling "good" after making his long-awaited return to action following another frustrating injury.
Stones enjoyed a good start to the season and became an almost guaranteed starter in Pep Guardiola's back-four ahead of Aymeric Laporte and even Ruben Dias. However, a troublesome hamstring injury has been a repeated problem and the defender was sidelined for over a month, missing several key matches.
He returned as an unused substitute in the victory over Newcastle United but was back in the starting XI on Saturday at right-back for the 1-0 win against Crystal Palace. His return comes at a great time for City with the Champions League last-16 second leg against RB Leipzig coming up this week and Stones is hoping he can now push on after his injury trouble.
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"Good," he replied when asked how he was feeling after his return to action. "Always frustrated when I get an injury. I worked really hard to come back better and stronger and hopefully I can keep progressing and contributing and see where it takes us.
"There’s a lot of games to play still and everyone is a vital part in how the team and the manager works. We’re all going to play games and contribute.”
City's win temporarily closed the gap on Premier League leaders Arsenal but the Gunners confidently dispatched Fulham on Sunday to restore their five-point advantage. Stones believes the Blues can only think about themselves in the race.
“It’s always the aim every season – every competition we try and go right until the end and win everything," he added. "That’s the standard we’ve set as a club and as a team. We’ll go for everything and hopefully we can come out on top.
"We’ve got to take it one step at a time and take each game as it comes. It’s down to us – sometimes we are our own biggest enemies. We don’t concentrate on the outside or anything that’s going on. It’s about us and what we can do. Today was one of those games where we did everything right and we move on to the next game.”
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