Pep Guardiola admits three of Manchester City's leading light are injury concerns ahead of next weekend's FA Cup final.
The Premier League champions have a mammoth two weeks coming up as they look to complete a historic treble, starting with a trip to Wembley to take on neighbours Manchester United. They are sweating on the availability of key personnel however.
Ruben Dias, who has been a defensive leaders in recent months, was absent for the game at Brentford having not trained for several days. Kevin De Bruyne felt the recurrence of an issue in midweek and Jack Grealish is also nursing an issue.
Guardiola claims "it's not a big issue" and anticipates they will be ready, but could not give any guarantees that the trio would be ready for the final as he targets the second FA Cup success of his tenure with the Champions League final to come a week later.
He said: “We have four or five players with niggles, not big injuries, but they are injuries. The guys who didn’t play didn’t here were really, really exhausted the day before and mentally, they were completely drained. The guys who are in Manchester - Ruben didn't train for 10 days, Jack Grealish, as well.
“After the game against Brighton, Kevin felt the same feelings that he had before, weeks ago when he could not play a few games. It is what it is. It's not a big issue, I think they will be ready. They have to be ready for the training sessions and I am going to see them in three days and that's why today was so important to see these players and how they are.
“Phil is in incredible form, Riyad as well, Cole was so active in many things. To play the finals we have to play the guys who feel better. Not because they played a lot of minutes. That’s why it was good to play with these guys and rest the other ones and hopefully the other ones can recover."
Guardiola named a much changed side for the trip to Brentford, which City lost 1-0. Several fringe players were named in the starting XI whilst others were given an opportunity to stake their claim for more involvement over the coming fortnight.
The Catalan will now give the players two days off before they return to the training ground to prepare for the first of their two finals: “I said to the players after the game, today we finished the Premier League, that you deservedly won. Enjoy two days with your families, don’t see each other and on Wednesday we’ll prepare the first final.”
