Manchester City will be without Rúben Dias for up to six weeks with a hamstring injury, exacerbating Pep Guardiola’s defensive injury crisis and leading the head coach to admit the club may enter the transfer market. The Crystal Palace captain, Marc Guéhi, is of interest.
City are contemplating a bid for Guéhi and are close to completing a move for the forward Antoine Semenyo, who is due for a medical on Thursday after playing a final game for Bournemouth on Wednesday at home against Tottenham. City have agreed to pay Semenyo’s almost £65m release clause.
Dias and Josko Gvardiol, who has a broken shinbone, were forced off in the draw with Chelsea on Sunday, leaving City with 13 fit senior outfield players for Brighton’s visit on Wednesday. The academy graduate Max Alleyne has been recalled from a loan at Watford to bolster central defensive options in the short term.
“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.”
Gvardiol, who required surgery, is unlikely to play again this season. There is no timeline on a return date for Stones, who has a thigh injury.
Stones, who has missed 59 games for club and country over the past 18 months, is out of contract in the summer and Guardiola indicated the 31-year-old would not be offered fresh terms. “What happened in the last two seasons will define the decision at the end of the season,” he said.
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.”
Guardiola said of potential defensive reinforcements: “We’ll see [about] a transfer, we will be creative. We’ll find some solutions.”
