Pep Guardiola has warned footballers to be on their guard after Jack Grealish’s home was targeted by burglars while he was playing in Manchester City’s win over Everton on Wednesday.
Items including £1m of watches and jewellery were reportedly taken from the house while the player’s family were inside the property. A number of footballers have been victims of similar incidents across the country, including Grealish’s teammate João Cancelo, currently on loan at Barcelona, who was injured during a robbery in December 2021. Grealish did not train on Thursday after being allowed him to be with his family but returned on Friday to prepare for City’s match against Sheffield United.
“They have security. But unfortunately it’s happened, it’s happened many times,” Guardiola said. “Today you have to be careful, definitely. Not much on social media, the less they know what you are doing the better. People are waiting. Waiting to see where you are.
“Unfortunately it’s happened with João, which was so scary because the family was being attacked. Jewellery, money, whatever – it’s tough – but the family being there is tough to process for Jack as it was with João before.”
Grealish could be joined in the squad on Saturday by Kevin De Bruyne who is close to recovering from a hamstring injury suffered on the opening day against Burnley. “Yeah, absolutely,” Guardiola said when asked if his return would be a boost. “He’s training with a lot of energy. Being injured is not good for anyone but I think for his mind it will have been good to have a few months off.”
John Stones, Jérémy Doku and Erling Haaland will be absent on Saturday, with Stones set to miss two to three weeks. After the visit of Sheffield United, City have only one Premier League game over the next month, allowing De Bruyne to be eased back in.
“What he [De Bruyne] loves is playing football but it’s been a long injury, it was major surgery and muscular so we have to be careful,” Guardiola said. “It looks like you are perfect but you are not. It’s how many minutes he can handle and do it step by step. It’s not playing 90 minutes, then three days later another 90 and another – after that you’d be in trouble. Now we are in a process where he could play and then have seven days to recover – it’s not a game every three days. So if we need him we are going to try to use him.”
