"Don't let anyone dim your shine," wrote Joao Cancelo on Instagram in Portuguese after he was an unused substitute for the third successive game on Friday night.
In another post, showing him in the Etihad tunnel he wrote: "Armoured mind and smile on the face," which suggests Cancelo feels he is deep in the middle of a battle at Manchester City at present.
In the 11 games since his clumsy red card against Fulham, Cancelo has started just four, played in six, and completed 90 minutes only twice. He's only started once at right-back in that time and just twice on the left, with Nathan Ake and Rico Lewis emerging as more reliable options on either side. At the World Cup, he also lost his place for Portugal to Manchester United's Diogo Dalot. It's not been the best three months for a player City previously thought was undroppable.
