Man City news: Medical expert names new Ruben Dias return date amid ‘huge’ claim
It will be another two weeks before Man City superstar Ruben Dias is fit again despite initial hopes that he may have recovered by now.
That is the view of injury expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in medicine and data analysis.
Dias, 24, has been out with a thigh issue since City’s 2-0 win at Peterborough on 3 March, and initial timelines suggested he would miss four to six weeks.
Pep Guardiola called the speed of his recovery “incredible” and suggested he could return after the international break, per club media on 19 March.
But the manager now claims he will adopt a “careful” approach and said that “it is better to go to six weeks”, per the Daily Mail last Friday (1 April).
That rules the Portuguese centre-back out of the season-defining title showdown against Liverpool on Sunday (10 April).
But Dinnery insists that affording last year’s Player of the Season extra time to recover is the right call given that more “huge” games are on the horizon.
“There had been some talk that he could return in game week 31,” he told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“That would have been around four weeks, which was the optimistic verdict. But it looks as though he is going to fulfil the initial six-week criteria.
“You look at the players Pep has at his disposal. John Stones, Aymeric Laporte, Nathan Ake are all available.
“So it’s right to give Dias extra time because they have some huge games coming up.
“At the business end of the table, you want your big players to be a part of that.
“The last thing you want is a setback that rules you out for even longer.“
Dias has chipped in with two goals and four assists from 34 appearances this term.
Liverpool will overtake City at the top of the Premier League with victory on Sunday.
In other news, finance guru tips Man City to demand more than £12.6bn after top brass meet in Vienna.