Man City boss Pep Guardiola has revealed that Ruben Dias could miss up to four weeks with a muscle problem following their Manchester derby defeat last weekend.
The Citizens have suffered from injuries to key players this term with Ballon d’Or winner Rodri ruled out for the entire season earlier this campaign.
Dias had just returned to Man City after missing games in November and now Guardiola has confirmed the Portugal international will be out “for three or four weeks”.
Guardiola told a press conference ahead of the game against Aston Villa on Saturday: “(He will be out for) three or four weeks. It was a muscle injury, (after) 75 minutes against Manchester United he felt something. He is so strong and he stayed on the field and now he is injured.”
If there was any other injury news, Guardiola added: “(Manuel) Akanji has been back training for the last two days which is good for us.”
After their 2-1 defeat to Man Utd in the derby on Sunday, Guardiola insisted he was “not good enough”repeated three times that he was the problem with Man City winning just one of their last 11 games.
Asked about his comments, Guardiola continued: “I just finished a game where we were close to winning and we lost. For the sequences that happened I was not happy. I tried to be honest with myself here six or seven days ago, if you fall six times you must stand up seven.
MORE MAN CITY COVERAGE ON F365…
Big weekend: Tottenham v Liverpool, Pep Guardiola, Southampton, Havertz, Barcelona
Rashford criticized for taking ‘flamethrower’ to Amorim relationship as ‘era of tough footballer’ dies with Walker
Man City and Man Utd could both have significant summer transfer disappointments
“I’m fine. I’m a normal person with feelings like all of us. When a situation goes well, we’re better and when things don’t go well professionally, we’re more (focused) on what we have to do.”
Asked if not having anyone in midweek has not helped Man City prepare for the Aston Villa game, Guardiola said: “Obviously, we have to start again. Even when we win many, many games in a row know we don’t know what will happen. Of course we have to try again and sooner or later it will turn around.”
Asked if there was anything from their previous meeting with Aston Villa that they could take into Saturday’s game, Guardiola said: “When they came back here we beat them 4-1, you have to analyze all the times we lose or lose points ?
“We win more than we lose. Sure we lose there, they were far better, they got here we were better. Why do you have to compare what happened there? The past is the past, this is a new moment, you have to deal with it .”
