Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has indicated that Kevin De Bruyne is likely to be available for their Premier League clash at Bournemouth, four days before the Premier League champions travel to Ashton Gate for a FA Cup fifth round tie against Bristol City.
Playmaker De Bruyne missed the midweek Champions League trip to RB Leipzig due to illness and is set to train on Friday afternoon before City travel to Dorset for the Saturday evening kick-off at Vitality Stadium. De Bruyne leads City’s team with 15 assists in all competitions and remains an integral individual in Guardiola’s system.
The Belgian international could start against Gary O’Neil’s Cherries or potentially be kept on the bench indicating he’ll then be in the line-up for Tuesday’s night’s game against the Robins.
Defenders Aymeric Laporte and John Stones, however, remain doubts for Guardiola with neither set to feature against Bournemouth. Spain international Laporte has also been suffering with illness, while England's Stones has been out since the end of January due to a hamstring injury.
"We have training this afternoon," Guardiola said on Friday. "I think Kevin is back for training, Aymer I don't think so. John maybe partial. We will know in the next few hours. We will see, maybe Kevin but the other two I don't think so."
Guardiola fielded a back three in Germany of Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake and Ruben Dias and should Laporte or Stones not be able to return for the cup tie at Ashton Gate, he may be unable to fully rotate his defensive line-up in what has been a run of four straight away games.
That being said, he has fielded strong line-ups throughout the FA Cup so far with goalkeeper Stefan Moreno the only fringe squad player who’s earned minutes in the competition so far, albeit with City facing Chelsea and then Arsenal to get to this stage.
Bristol City have injury issues of their own in defence with centre-back Rob Atkinson out for the season due to an ACL injury sustained last weekend at Sunderland while the versatile Kal Naismith is unlikely to return from a calf problem until around the international break in a month’s time.
Nigel Pearson will also be denied the services of new forwards Anis Mehmeti and Harry Cornick with the deadline day arrivals cup tied having played for Wycombe Wanders and Luton Town, respectively, in the competition.
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