Abdukodir Khusanov forced to travel to Greece to gain access to Spain for Manchester City’s Champions League clash with Real Madrid

The travel arrangements of Manchester City centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov were drastically rearranged on Tuesday due to visa complications, it has been reported.

The Uzbek central defender, who is aiming for his first UEFA Champions League start for Manchester City since joining the club last month, joins Europe’s premier club competition off the back of an impressive showing against Newcastle on Saturday afternoon.

Pep Guardiola entrusted the 20-year-old to start alongside John Stones at the heart of his defensive unit despite problems in the opening exchanges of his debut for the club against Chelsea in the Premier League last month.

Khusanov, alongside his Manchester City defensive teammates, managed to record a much-needed clean sheet as part of a stellar 4-0 win over Newcastle at the weekend in the perfect warm-up to matters involving Real Madrid on Wednesday night.

But the former RC Lens defender’s journey was significantly more difficult than his teammates who flew into the Spanish capital together earlier on Tuesday evening, with Khusanov not arriving until the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The Tashkent-born star’s arrival at the Manchester City team hotel in Madrid was captured by El Chiringuito cameras around 1:30AM local time, as security accompanied the defender from a vehicle into the building in a low-key entrance.

Now, according to Spanish outlet El Chiringuito, Abdukodir Khusanov’s journey to the Spanish capital this week was complicated by the UK’s exit from the European Union and the Schengen area, resulting in issues for him travelling to Madrid with his Uzbekistan passport.

Greek outlet ‘Footboom’ have detailed that the solution to the issue came through Greece with Khusanov able to secure a visa to travel to Athens, before then flying into Spain via private jet without any further issues.

It remains to be seen whether the complications surrounding Khusanov’s journey to Madrid will have any impact on Pep Guardiola’s thinking over whether to start the Uzbekistan international on Wednesday night off the back of his impressive weekend performance.

Guardiola has a dilemma to overcome in the right-back role in particular, having turned to Manuel Akanji in the first-leg only for the Swiss international to sustain an abductor problem that required surgery and has now sidelined him for up to 10 weeks.

John Stones is understood to be the favourite to take on the position, although Rico Lewis was handed the opportunity to go one-against-one with Vinicius Jr and his Real Madrid attacking colleagues during the second-half of the first-leg tie last week.

Matheus Nunes is another option, while there is a belief that Abdukodir Khusanov would have the necessary traits to excel in the role.