Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has revealed that Omar Marmoush is likely to miss his side’s UEFA Champions League clash against Bodo/Glimt.
Marmoush has been away on international duty with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations, scoring twice as the Pharaohs finished fourth at the tournament in Morocco.
Egypt topped their group and defeated Benin and Ivory Coast en route to the semi-finals, where they lost to Senegal before falling to Nigeria on penalties in the third-place play-off.
With the match taking place on Saturday evening and the turnaround proving too short, Marmoush is expected to miss the Blues’ next UEFA Champions League clash in Norway on Tuesday at 17:45 (UK).
However, Guardiola is pleased to have the 26-year-old returning to the squad soon to support fellow forward Erling Haaland, whom the manager described as “exhausted” after the Citizens’ Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg victory over Newcastle United.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said when asked about Marmoush’s chances of featuring in the Champions League match.
“We need Erling and all of them. I don’t know if Omar is coming and Erling is going to play. Erling is so important to us”.
“We will see what happens next game. We have to travel to Norway right now, go there and we’ll see how they recover, and I can smell how they feel, and after that, continue.”
“We did it last season and we continue this one. We have players coming back soon and try to be there.”
“The energy is connected one to the other one. The energy comes from the other one – you with me, you with me, you with me. It’s as simple as that”.
“We are lucky we have Erling this season for what he has done. It’s important when you have games every three days, three days, three days to sustain it a lot”.
“We have to live with it and deal with it and it makes us stronger. Our spirit that we had in the difficulties was incredible. We had it in Newcastle for many reasons, we responded and [against Manchester United] we were not able to do it.”
Marmoush joined City in January 2025 and delivered instrumental performances that helped the Citizens secure a third-place Premier League finish and qualification for this season’s Champions League.
He has missed the Blues’ last nine matches due to his AFCON campaign, including the derby defeat at United, though the manager insisted the loss at Old Trafford was not a result of his prolonged absence.
“Omar is an exceptional player, his moments in behind are extraordinary, but it would be so poor from me to say the reason why we didn’t get a result here or the previous ones is because Omar is not here,” Pep added.
“It’s not fair for him, and it’s not fair for the team and all the guys that are here. We need to do it.”
