Man City's Phil Foden injury worry as two players ruled out of Premier League opener

Just days remain until the Premier League gets back underway and Pep Guardiola has already been left to unpleasantly sweat over he can select in his starting lineup. In a campaign that sees the club looking to put a disappointing 2024/25 season behind them, Manchester City have not got off to a smooth start.

The club took on Palermo in their final friendly before facing Wolves next week but Guardiola was forced to leave four players at home. Phil Foden joined Rodri, Josko Gvardiol and Claudio Echeverri on the no-fly list, while Mateo Kovacic made the trip but remains injured. Foden's return is not guaranteed for the opening game of the season, though the ankle issue does not appear serious.

"He has a problem in his ankle and that’s why we didn’t take a risk," Guardiola said. "I don’t know [if he will play against Wolves]. It's just a knock - it was painful but he will be ready when he is ready."

But that is the least of the Catalan coach's problems with City already looking stretched in the centre of midfield. Just a day after confirming that Spanish lynchpin Rodri would miss the first month of the season, Guardiola revealed that Kovacic was set to face another two months out after being expected to return in time for the kick-off against Wolves.

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The Croatian's Achilles issue could keep him out until October, leaving Guardiola short of options in the centre of the field after Rodri's setback. Nico Gonzalez, who has previously been labelled as 'mini-Rodri', would be the logical stand-in but played just once at the Club World Cup.

"We have three,” Guardiola said of the position. "Kova is injured until September or October, Rodri is coming back after six months and [we have] Nico. The others can play there but are more attacking, they like to be in the [opposition’s] box. Gundo can play there and Tijji can play there but when everybody is fit their position is more up front.”

“Rodri’s getting better but he had a big injury in the last game against Al-Hilal and for the last five or six weeks," Guardiola explained of Rodri's timeline to a return.

“He’s training right now and in the last two or three days is better. Hopefully maybe the international break is when he will be really, really fit.

"Hopefully, in the games (prior to that) he can play some minutes, but the important thing is to not have pain because we don’t want him to come back and get injured.

"We will try desperately to avoid that but he's been training [in] the last two or three days with us and that’s good."

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