Pep Guardiola has revealed the latest on Rodri’s fitness, saying that the midfielder will remain on the sidelines and will miss for Manchester City’s crunch clash against Aston Villa next week.
The City boss ruled out any chance of the Spaniard facing his former side on Tuesday in the Champions League, with the player continuing to recover from a hamstring issue.
Rodri has been plagued with injury issues since last season and is now set to miss the Premier League game at Villa – a venue where City are without a win since 2021.
Guardiola rules out Rodri for Villarreal and Aston Villa clash
‘I don’t think so for Villareal – or Aston Villa,’ Guardiola said. ‘It’s not long, but it’s muscular and you have to be careful.
‘We’ve tried so many times, we’ve tried to not take a risk, but we have not been able to (manage) that. So we will see.’
Rodri has been eager to play regular football this term but had to come off early in City’s 1-0 win at Brentford just before the international break.
With Rodri now set to miss City’s next two games, it would mean the extent of his hamstring issue will have been well over three weeks.
Nico Gonzalez played particularly well in Saturday’s victory over Everton and continues to make progress playing the holding midfield role, while Mateo Kovacic was on the pitch for the first time since May after undergoing an Achilles operation.
‘Kovacic has a special quality with the ball to keep it,’ Guardiola added. ‘We cannot forget he’s come from surgery, a three or four-month injury. We need his quality back.’
‘I want Kovacic for 90 minutes, 90 minutes, 90 minutes. In the time, we’ll get it. But now I don’t have that feeling that he’s ready to play that. And it will not help him. But 20, 30 minutes… all the players we have, in different ways we can play, are extraordinary.’
It is a known fact that City are much better with Rodri in the middle of the park than without him. Guardiola will be hoping the Spain international recovers quickly enough and also avoids yet another injury complication. In a season where City will need quality depth to compete on all fronts, the presence of a key player like Rodri will be crucial for his side’s hopes.
