Pep Guardiola sent huge warning after Man City star suffers devastating injury blow
Manchester City thrashed Burnley 5-1 on Saturday as Erling Haaland continues his excellent start to the 2025-26 season.
Despite leading the Premier League in goals scored, Manchester City rank bottom for a surprising stat as Pep Guardiola attempts to return his team to the summit of the English top flight.
Meanwhile, Bruno Guimaraes is happy to stay at Newcastle United amid Manchester City‘s interest in signing the Brazilian midfielder. Newcastle United are planning contract talks with Guimaraes in a bid to ward off interest from City and any other clubs keen to sign him.
Pep Guardiola confirms brutal Rodri injury blow
Ahead of City’s midweek Champions League clash with AS Monaco, Guardiola was asked about the injury situation with Rodri.
The Spanish manager confirmed that Rodri is experiencing pain in the same knee that he suffered an ACL tear in last year and will be absent for the game in France.
Speaking to the media, Guardiola said: “Rodri, yesterday [in] training, he said, ‘I’m not able to play. I have a lot of pain in my knee, I cannot play, I cannot play’.
“And I said, ‘You cannot play? You don’t play. So, another one is going to play’. I don’t know yet, I don’t know. (Is it the same knee that he injured?) Yeah.”
How many days Rodri has missed through injury
After winning the Ballon d’Or in October 2024, Rodri tragically suffered an ACL tear and subsequently missed 236 days of football as a result. The injury ruled him out for 53 games for Manchester City and the Spain national team.
Rodri then struggled in pre-season with stiffness in his knee, and is now experiencing problems with the same knee he injured in 2024. It’s a tragic situation for a player voted by journalists as the best footballer in the world a year ago.
For Man City, it’s a brutal blow too. Their attacking style of play was predicated on Rodri’s ability to break up play and stop attacks. Hopefully, he can recover quickly and return before too long.
The top five worst ACL injuries in Premier League history have seen the likes of Michael Owen never return to their best, and the worry now for Rodri is that he will struggle to regain the level he was operating at before his injury.
Virgil van Dijk managed to return to the heights he was at before his ACL, but he didn’t suffer any further problems after his recovery. City needs to be very, very careful with Rodri to ensure the problem isn’t exacerbated.