Concerns ahead of first Man City friendly after major stadium decision

Organisers are hoping for rain in North Carolina to ensure Manchester City's opening friendly of the summer goes ahead in the best possible conditions.

As City fly out to Chapel Hill on Friday, ground staff at the Kenan Memorial Stadium have relaid the turf for the friendly with Celtic on Tuesday (kick-off is 12.30am on Wednesday morning in the UK). The 48,000-seater stadium is home to the University of North Carolina's college football team, with an artificial turf in place for American football.

However, for the visit of City and Celtic, a sod turf has been installed this week - just like it was for the venue's first football fixture last summer when Chelsea faced Wrexham. Organisers are hoping that forecast rain in the days leading up to the fixture will help ensure the newly-laid grass surface is of the best quality, especially as the stadium has no irrigation or drainage system.

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Speaking on a segment on CBS 17, Casey Carrick of UNC Athletics said: "Soccer players prefer to play on natural grass, as do the promoters, FC Series, that are putting this on. We don't have irrigation out here so everything we're going to do is hand water, so a nice rain storm or a little bit of rain will really help get everything irrigated."

City have had issues with playing surfaces in tour games in recent years, while their second game of this year's pre-season schedule sees them return to Yankee Stadium - famously used for baseball but where sister-club New York City FC play a proportion of their MLS fixtures. Their final fixture, at the Ohio Stadium, Columbus, is at another