Pep Guardiola makes Kevin De Bruyne prediction as Man City star prepares to make return

Pep Guardiola believes Kevin De Bruyne will benefit from his four-month break from action as the Manchester City midfielder closes in on a return to the first-team squad.

De Bruyne has been absent since the first weekend of the season, having undergone surgery on a hamstring injury picked up at Burnley, but he has been back full training for nearly two weeks and is "training with a lot of energy", according to Guardiola.

The City boss was set to decide on whether De Bruyne will return to the squad for today's game against Sheffield United after training on Friday afternoon, but with John Stones, Jeremy Doku and Erling Haaland still absent, there were places up for grabs in the matchday squad.

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De Bruyne returned to training with the rest of the squad in Jeddah for the Club World Cup and is now close to the point of building up match fitness, having been restricted to around an hour of football this season. Guardiola is trying to hold the 32-year-old back at the moment and is sensing that the lay-off might have been beneficial to him.

"He’s training with a lot of energy. Being injured is not good for anyone but I think for his mind it will have been good to have a few months off," he said.

"What he loves is playing football but it’s been a long injury, it was major surgery and muscular so we have to be careful. It looks like you are perfect but you are not.

"It’s how many minutes he can handle and do it step by step. It’s not playing 90 minutes then three days later another 90 and another – after that you’d be in trouble."

De Bruyne played in the Community Shield