Kevin De Bruyne is on the bench for Manchester City tonight for their Premier League clash with Tottenham.
The Belgian playmaker came through Saturday’s derby loss at rivals Manchester United unscathed but was absent on Tuesday due to personal reasons as the squad were put through their paces on the training ground.
Pep Guardiola explained on Wednesday: “He had a personal issue and was not training [on Tuesday]. Today, he is back.” He is not named in the starting XI though.
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England defender John Stones missed the Manchester derby as well as the Carabao Cup quarter-final loss at Southampton last week, but returns to the side, while fellow centre-back Ruben Dias is on the bench.
Guardiola continued: “[Dias and Stones] were in the last two training sessions, they have trained and are in contention [to face Spurs]”.
Dias has not played since before the World Cup and could see some minutes tonight, while Jack Grealish’s goal at Old Trafford sees him start ahead of an out-of-form Phil Foden.
Ilkay Gundogan, Rico Lewis and Nathan Ake all start, with Kyle Wiler and Bernardo Silva among those on the bench.
Man City XI: Ederson, Lewis, Stones, Akanji, Ake, Rodri, Gundogan, Grealish, Mahrez, Alvarez, Haaland
Subs: Ortega Moreno, Walker, Dias, Phillips, Cancelo, Laporte, De Bruyne, Silva, Foden