Hugo Viana could soon be given green light to make first Man City summer signing

When Pep Guardiola offers an injury update on Manu Akanji and Jack Grealish on Friday, it could define Manchester City's short-term future.

Rico Lewis had a nightmare against Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe this week and the prospect of Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak targeting his flank this weekend isn't much of a better combination.

Kyle Walker has jumped ship, Lewis is struggling for form, and now Akanji looks injured after his substitution against Real Madrid, after a first half that finally looked to have solved the right-back crisis.

If, as some rumours suggest, Akanji is out for a longer period, then it is back to square one for City against Newcastle just when a solution finally looked to have been found.

Lewis would be the obvious replacement for Akanji. He started the season in fine form at right-back but has hit a roadblock recently and has struggled since his red card at Crystal Palace. If he is the first-choice right-back moving forward, he faces a list of opponents that reads Gordon, Vinicius, Salah, and Heung-min Son in the coming weeks.

Hardly a list that inspires confidence in a player severely lacking in it.

There has been some social media clamour for Abdukodir Khusanov to play at right-back instead. He has looked good since the nightmare four minutes at the start of his debut but has not yet played 100 minutes since joining City and half of those came against a League One side.

The same reasons you wouldn't want Lewis facing those world-class wingers applies even more so to Khusanov. Matheus Nunes - prone to costly errors in his secondment to right-back - is another who is far from a perfect solution.

Maybe John Stones gets a run at right-back, then? It would take him away from the holding role he