(Reuters) – Manchester City midfielder Rodri will be out for a “long time”, manager Pep Guardiola said on Tuesday, while the team await confirmation on the severity of the Spaniard’s knee injury.
The 28-year-old Spain international limped off the pitch in the first half of Man City’s 2-2 Premier League draw with Arsenal on Sunday with what is feared to be a season-ending ACL injury.
Following his side’s League Cup win over Watford, coach Guardiola said he still did not know the 28-year-old’s exact diagnosis, but expected to find out in the coming hours.
“Still we don’t have the definitive (diagnosis) but he will be out for a long time, a while,” Guardiola said.
“There are some opinions that it may be less than we expect. Right now I can’t tell you. We’re waiting on the last phone calls from the doctors. What he has and what type of surgery he has to get.
“We expect that tonight, tomorrow we will know exactly.”
Rodri, named the best player at this summer’s European Championship, which he won with Spain, has been key to Guardiola’s success at the helm of the Premier League champions.
Since joining from Atletico Madrid in 2019, Rodri has played 174 Premier League games for the club and has finished on the losing side only 19 times in that period, with 129 wins.
However, the Man City boss says the team will find a solution in the absence of an “irreplaceable player”.
“When a team doesn’t play with the best midfielder in the world for a long, long time, it is a big blow,” said Guardiola.
“I will find a solution. There is an alternative, we will do it. When you have one player who is irreplaceable, as a team we have to find a solution.”
(Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in Mexico City; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
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