I saw Man City player offer Pep Guardiola wildcard solution to solve injury problems vs Bournemouth
Pep Guardiola's primary objective at Tottenham was to emerge without any further injuries to his Manchester City squad. He got at least two more.
With six influential players missing, and no sign of any returning before the international break, City's preparations at Spurs were rocked when Manu Akanji pulled out of the warm-ups with a calf problem. The fact that he picked up the injury the day before but was still risked in the starting line up underlines the desperate nature of Guardiola's injury problems.
Maybe that was because Ruben Dias is 'struggling'. Dias replaced Akanji but was substituted at half-time. And his replacement Josko Gvardiol ended the game getting treatment from physios on the pitch after the full time whistle. Savinho was stretchered off, too.
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Add those four to the six already out and City could have ten players missing at Bournemouth on Saturday. Guardiola says he has just 13 players available, referring to his senior options of which three are goalkeepers and one hasn't started a game in the Premier League for City before.
It is almost certain that Guardiola will have to call upon his academy options again. Nico O'Reilly isn't included in the 13 and it would be unfair to expect him to solve the issues all in one. But he looked good at Spurs and Guardiola praised him for playing like he did in pre-season when the boss decided to promote him permanently to the senior team.
Jacob Wright came off the bench for a fourth senior appearance and this was the best of the lot, including his friendly