Manchester City are bracing to be without Rodri for a substantial period of time and Pep Guardiola seems to have already made provisions.
Just days before going down with his knee injury against Arsenal, the midfielder had mooted that players could go on strike due to the increasingly claustrophobic calendar. Over the past two seasons, Rodri played 131 matches for club and country.
City fans saw how stretched the squad was at times throughout last season amid spates of bad injury luck and it seems the manager has acted accordingly. Though, if there was one man whose absence could shake the entire season it is Rodri. Perhaps the most obvious is Mateo Kovacic, who played as the anchor while Rodri got up to fitness following his setback suffered in the Euro 2024 final. The Croat has featured as the pivot more than 100 times across his career, four of which came in Chelsea’s triumphant Champions League campaign of 2021.
But Gundogan is capable of playing as the protector, having done so 13 times at Barcelona last season, which is actually more than Kovacic did for Man City last term. He also tallied more clean sheets in the role .
Rodri Ilkay Gundogan Mateo Kovacic Manchester City Injury News
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