Pep Guardiola is hopeful that Aymeric Laporte can return after the international break as he explained the reasons for signing Manuel Akanji.
Manchester City were not planning to add another centre-half to their ranks this summer as they prioritised other areas of the team. However, having conducted the majority of their business and seen Nathan Ake suffer an injury at Newcastle that he is yet to return from, the Blues saw an opportunity to sign a player with plenty of experience that included impressing against them in the Champions League.
Guardiola is happy that Laporte is recovering well from his injury and that he is on schedule with his rehabilitation but will not underestimate the seriousness of the injury that he suffered. With that contributing to a lack of depth at centre-back, spending £15.1m on Akanji made sense.
