Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola spoke about his injury situation ahead of the Premier League game with West Ham
Pep Guardiola will be without seven Manchester City stars for the Premier League game with West Ham as he hopes that the team injury issues ease up before the end of the year. Oscar Bobb became the latest to be ruled out when he went down with a hamstring problem in the 2-0 League Cup win over Brentford.
Bobb joins John Stones, Rodri, Mateo Kovacic and Jeremy Doku on the list of players who are unavailable, with none set to feature this weekend. In addition, Omar Marmoush and Rayan Ait-Nouri left this week to join up with their national teams for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Guardiola does not expect anybody back this weekend, meaning there could be places in the squad for academy players Divine Mukasa, Stephen Mfuni and Charlie Gray again. Mukasa made his third start of the season at home to Brentford while Gray came off the bench to make his debut.
However, the City manager indicated that there could be a few more senior players in the squads for the Nottingham Forest or Sunderland games after Christmas. “We have a game tomorrow and after have five days before Nottingham and Sunderland,” he said. “Maybe a few of them will start to be back but not for tomorrow.”
With Rodri and Kovacic injured, Guardiola has relied on January signing Nico Gonzalez to anchor the midfield. The Spaniard started his 12th game in a row in midweek against Brentford and looks likely to be called upon again as City look to keep pace with Arsenal in the Premier League title race.
“The position we are in right now would not have been possible without him. Without Rodri and Kovacic, we don’t have a proper replacement but he recovers well, he is young and like with Rayan [Cherki] he has a margin to improve and getting better, especially with the ball and we are working on it.”
