EPL

Guardiola indicates Man City star Torres could be out until 2022 with metatarsal blow

By Sports Desk October 15, 2021

Pep Guardiola fears Ferran Torres could be sidelined until January after the Manchester City forward fractured the fourth metatarsal in his right foot.

The 21-year-old suffered the injury in Spain's 2-1 Nations League semi-final victory over Italy but managed to play through the pain for 84 minutes in the 2-1 defeat by France in the final.

Scans conducted upon Torres' return to Manchester revealed a small fracture, and Guardiola suggested it could be a long wait before he plays again.

"Torres will be out for two months and a half, three months," Guardiola told a news conference on Friday.

"Except Ferran, the rest of the team are OK. The injury is the fourth metatarsal."

Guardiola considers Spain boss Luis Enrique blameless, saying he had full trust in his former Barcelona team-mate.

"The injury can happen here, at home, with the national team. I know perfectly Luis Enrique, he treats all the players as good as possible," Guardiola said.

"He doesn't want Ferran to get injured. They try to take care, sometimes it happens. It happened with Belgium with Kevin [De Bruyne], Phil [Foden] with England.

"It would be better not to happen but unfortunately it happens. He will spend a few weeks in Spain and then come back and recover hopefully in two, three months."

Guardiola said he was "delighted" Oleksandr Zinchenko and Ilkay Gundogan had recovered from knocks and were back in training, ahead of the home game against Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday.

However, Brazil internationals Ederson and Gabriel Jesus will miss the Burnley game, having been on World Cup qualification duty with their national team late on Thursday.

"They played in Brazil yesterday, they cannot fly back [in time]," Guardiola said.

Asked if they would be available for the Champions League game against Club Brugge on Tuesday, Guardiola said: "Maybe, I don't know that yet."

Torres is now certain to miss a long stretch of games, including the first Manchester derby of the season at Old Trafford on November 6, and seemingly the rest of City's Champions League group games.

It is bad luck for a player who enjoyed a fruitful start to the season, having been converted into a centre-forward by Guardiola.

Torres leads City in the Premier League this season for goals (two, level with Jesus), minutes per goal (152.5), expected goals (2.01) and shots (13, level with Gundogan).

With Torres and Jesus absent in the short term, Guardiola will have to look elsewhere for central attacking options. Foden and De Bruyne are not natural forwards, despite both players regularly being deployed in a false nine role.

Related items

  • Celtic will not risk Callum McGregor ahead of Rangers showdown Celtic will not risk Callum McGregor ahead of Rangers showdown

    Celtic captain Callum McGregor has a “very good chance” of facing Rangers but will not be risked on Livingston’s artificial surface.

    Manager Brendan Rodgers will delay McGregor’s comeback until after Sunday’s cinch Premiership contest at the Tony Macaroni Arena.

    The midfielder has been troubled by Achilles pain and has not featured since coming off at half-time during Celtic’s 7-1 win over Dundee on February 28.

    Rodgers said: “Callum has been out on the field, but we are not risking him in this game. But he should hopefully re-join training next week.”

    When asked if McGregor had a chance of facing Rangers, Rodgers replied: “Yes, a very good chance.”

    Reo Hatate is set to make his return after playing only 19 minutes for Celtic since October. The Japan midfielder briefly returned from a hamstring injury at the start of the year only to suffer calf problems during the Asian Cup.

    Cameron Carter-Vickers is also expected to play after being left out of the United States squad amid ongoing hamstring issues but Celtic could again be without wingers Yang Hyun-jun and Luis Palma, the latter of whom has a calf injury.

    Rodgers said: “Cameron is fine, Reo Hatate is back and available in the squad, which is great news. He has worked very hard, he played a bounce game in the time off and he has built up his fitness.

    “Yang has come back (from South Korea duty) with a bit of tightness so we just need to make sure that’s nothing more serious. He played two 60 minutes and a 30 minutes when he was away, so he has come back a little bit tight. We just have to check and make sure he is OK.

    “Luis Palma will probably just miss out on this weekend but will hopefully be available soon.”

    Rodgers admits Livingston’s artificial pitch comes into his thinking when making his team selection.

    “You certainly have to consider it,” he said. “Like, for example Callum, you have to think along that route.

    “There’s no doubt it comes into your thinking, especially on the back of an international break when players have been travelling.

    “I think we are all hopeful in the future that we will have quality grass pitches here that the supporters can see the best possible game they can, but at this moment we play on the plastic pitch so we have to deal with that.

    “Of course that means we have to think about team selection and the welfare of the player, and obviously from Callum’s perspective it’s probably too much of a risk for us.”

  • Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool assessing Andy Robertson injury ‘day by day’ Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool assessing Andy Robertson injury ‘day by day’

    Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool will take things “day by day” with Andy Robertson as he indicated the left-back’s injury was not serious.

    Robertson was being assessed by the Reds after coming off in the first half of Scotland’s friendly against Northern Ireland on Tuesday due to an ankle issue.

    Speaking at his press conference ahead of Sunday’s Premier League home clash with Brighton, Liverpool boss Klopp said: “Robbo, we take it a little bit day by day, so we will see.

    “He will not train today but it’s not as bad, so that’s fine.”

    Klopp – whose side after the Brighton game continue their title bid by hosting Sheffield United next Thursday, then playing Manchester United away three days later – also reported that Darwin Nunez, a withdrawal from Uruguay’s squad as the international break got under way, was “fine”.

    Ibrahima Konate, absent for Liverpool’s last three games, is set to be available this weekend as well, and while Klopp said he was unsure if that applied to Curtis Jones, the midfielder has been training.

    Liverpool have also had Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Diogo Jota on the sidelines, and Klopp added: “The other boys, from next week on, step by step I think they will join parts of team training, and then team training, so we will see what we do with that.

    “They’re not too far away but not in yet. They all make their steps, so it’s positive.”

  • Philippe Clement confident ‘there will be a solution’ to John Lundstram contract Philippe Clement confident ‘there will be a solution’ to John Lundstram contract

    Philippe Clement is confident that John Lundstram will extend his contract at Rangers.

    The 30-year-old midfielder, who signed from Sheffield United in 2021, has found good form since the Belgian boss took over at Ibrox last October but his current deal runs out in the summer.

    Ahead of the home cinch Premiership game against Hibernian on Saturday, Clement was asked if he was hopeful and confident of Lundstram staying in Govan.

    He said: “Yes, I am totally confident about that, that there’s a lot of love from both sides, so that there will be a solution.”

    Clement was pleased to report that Abdallah Sima, Ross McCausland, Kieran Dowell and Dujon Sterling are back in training and in contention for Saturday following recovery from various injuries, although Ridvan Yilmaz is  out and a doubt for next week’s Old Firm game against Celtic at Ibrox, with Oscar Cortes, Ryan Jack and Danilo still on the sidelines.

    Attacker, Sima, 22  is on loan from Brighton and had notched 15 goals this season before picking up a thigh injury in January while with the Senegal squad at the Africa Cup of Nations.

    Of his returning players in general, and on Sima on particular, the Gers boss said: “They are contention but of course not to play 90 minutes – then it is about choices, if they can play 15, 20 minutes you cannot of course have four or five players like that on the bench.

    “So we need to take that into account and make good choices.

    “Of course Sima has been out a long time so you cannot expect miracles from the start but he has shown his quality, he has his power, his pace, he has the appetite for goals and he came back to training in a good way, so that’s positive.

    “It’s about building rhythm again, making him stronger again and then I think he is going to play an important part in this last two months.”

    Left-back Yilmaz withdrew from the Turkey squad over the weekend after limping out of Friday’s friendly defeat in Hungary with a reported thigh strain.

    Clement said: “It is not going to be long, long term.

    “We are going to see next week.

    “There is a possibility that he can to be fit for next week but it is still a doubt so we will see next week.”

© 2023 SportsMaxTV All Rights Reserved.