Fernandinho was Pep Guardiola's man for an emergency at Man City and can do it one last time

A chuckling Pep Guardiola decided to ask the room for any suggestions.

Kyle Walker’s suspension, Joao Cancelo’s illness and Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake’s pre-existing injuries mean his defence for the second leg of the Champions League clash with Sporting Lisbon could be a case of “any warm body”.

That 5-0 first-leg lead certainly looks even more useful now.

“I don’t know. Tell me solutions! I’m thinking too,” Guardiola said at his pre-match news conference when discussing Wednesday's right-back quandary.

“Fernandinho maybe. I don’t know. We are going to see. I will speak with the players, we have some players in the academy.”

Youth team right-back CJ Egan-Riley trained with the first team on Tuesday and could be in for a surprise Champions League debut, although we shouldn’t dismiss Guardiola’s suggestion from the other end of the age spectrum out of hand.

Fernandinho might have been earmarked for dropping in at centre-back, given Guardiola can ill afford anything to happen to John Stones or Aymeric Laporte as Dias and Ake remain sidelined.

That could still happen but, although it’s been a while, the veteran Brazilian has played at right-back before and it came at a crucial period in Guardiola’s City project.

A key factor in Pep’s first season at the Etihad Stadium failing to yield a trophy was his full-backs not being up to standard. Although fine servants over the years, Pablo Zabaleta, Gael Clichy, Aleksandar Kolarov and Bacary Sagna were all in the autumn of their careers.

It’s tantalising to imagine how good prime Zabaleta and Clichy would have been in a Guardiola system but we only got to see fleeting glances of this - Zaba’s no-nonsense shackling of Neymar during the 3-1 Champions League group stage win