Guardiola: Fernandinho Expected To Rest For Six Weeks

Pep Guardiola expects his side captain Fernandinho to be rested between four and six months after the midfielder suffered another injury as Manchester City beat Porto 3-1 in the Champions League earlier this morning.

The Brazilian national was included in the 85th minute of the Group C match at the Etihad Stadium but could not finish the game due to a foot injury.

Fernandinho has struggled with muscle problems over the past few seasons which has seen him sidelined in 15 games in the last two seasons, where City have swept away all domestic titles.

And Guardiola, who was also unable to bring down Gabriel Jesus, Nathan Ake, Benjamin Mendy, Kevin De Bruyne and Aymeric Laporte against Porto, felt the versatile midfielder would once again take a long break.

“It’s bad news, he suffered an injury in the same place before,” Guardiola told BT Sport.

“He will be sidelined for a long time. That’s what happened.”

Fernandinho has made 288 appearances in the English Premier League (EPL) since joining City in 2013 and has been filling a vacant midfield position lately.

Commenting further in the post-match press conference, Guardiola added: “It may take four to six weeks. It was a big blow as we had to go through a lot of matches and no players.”

However, Guardiola gave positive news on the fitness levels of De Bruyne and Laporte with both players having a chance to be dropped in the league match against West Ham on Saturday.

“I think Kevin and Laporte will start training tomorrow but I don’t know how they will be tomorrow and the day after, so we’ll see.

“Unfortunately, after a player returns, we lose another but it is a very important return.

“In these three days, we will go to London and after that, we will go to France to meet Marseille before meeting Sheffield (United) three days later.

“The schedule is very busy and we need all the players,” he added.