Manchester City travel to Aston Villa on Saturday, with the aim of turning the tide in what is currently their worst sequence of results under Pep Guardiola, however, their injury problems lingers on.
Defender Ruben Dias will be out for three to four weeks due to a muscle injury, another blow for Guardiola’s side who have won just one game in their last 11 across all competitions.
Dias picked up the injury in City’s 2-1 defeat to rivals Manchester United on Sunday, a result which saw them drop to fifth on the log.
“It was a muscular injury, [after] 75 minutes against Manchester United he felt something. He is so strong and he stayed on the pitch and now he is injured,” Guardiola said to reporters on Friday.
However, a relief comes as fellow defender Manuel Akanji, returned to training this week after suffering an injury early this month.
The reigning English champions stunningly lost to United last weekend, leading in the 88th minute before their neighbours scored two goals in less than two minutes.
Guardiola looked distraught after the game, and blamed himself for the shocking run, telling pressmen during a long and heartfelt post-game press conference that he ‘was not good enough’.
Although, he looked in different spirits by Friday.
“I just finished a game where we were close to winning and we lost. For the sequences that happened I was not happy,” Guardiola added.
“I tried to be honest with myself here right now in six or seven days ago, [but] if you fall down six times you have to stand up seven.
“I am fine. I am a normal person with feelings like all of us. When a situation is going well we are better and when it is not going well professionally we are more [focused] on what we have to do.”
