Pep Guardiola knows exactly why Man City have so many injuries - but there is one thing he won't do

There is one thing Pep Guardiola absolutely won't do in response to Manchester City's back-to-back defeats and ongoing injury crisis.

Guardiola cut a frustrated figure in his technical area as City were deservedly beaten by a brilliant Bournemouth side. 'We couldn't handle their intensity', bemoaned the manager after the game, while countering that their 32-game unbeaten run in the Premier League since their last defeat 11 months ago was 'incredible'.

City welcomed back three players from injury, while two more recovered from knocks and played through the pain - but Guardiola also lost Ruben Dias and John Stones to injury. Already this season, 12 of his 20 senior outfield players have missed games through injury.

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That is 59 instances of a senior player being unavailable through injury already this term across 15 games, rising to 60 if Erling Haaland's personal leave in the Carabao Cup win over Watford is included - an average of four outfield players missing per game. And Guardiola has had to rest other players to cope with the ongoing injury issues - it was Erling Haaland at Tottenham and Rico Lewis at Bournemouth.

Kyle Walker says he rushed himself back against Bournemouth to rally his depleted teammates in their hour of need.

City have now lost back-to-back fixtures for the first time in 13 months, and face a tricky week away to Sporting in the Champions League before another long trip to Brighton in the Premier League.

But Guardiola refuses to make excuses for their form, and will not fall back on injuries when looking for