Phil Foden fitness update following aggravated foot injury against Newcastle

Manchester City have received significant fitness boost surrounding Phil Foden, after the England star admitted to aggravating a foot problem at the weekend.

The 22 year-old played an integral part in the weekend’s 2-0 victory over Newcastle United at the Etihad Stadium, opening the scoring in the first-half through a sensational solo goal that saw him beat five defenders en route to goal.

Phil Foden is seemingly coming into a rich vein of form for Pep Guardiola once again, after a challenging period either side of the winter break for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, and largely during the early weeks of the new calendar year.

Those struggles have been put down to Foden not being fully fit, and the player struggling to overcome a reoccurring foot problem that was made worse during the 2-1 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford.

In a concerning update after the win over Eddie Howe’s side on Saturday afternoon, Foden said, “Unfortunately I’ve kind of hurt it again but now I need to rest up. We’ve got two days off now so hopefully I’ll have the chance to rest it.

“Sometimes it is rest you need. It’s one of those injuries where physios can’t really help. It goes when it goes, you have to learn how to manage it. Whether it’s not training as much, just doing partial training, trying to look after it, I’m just trying to find that balance, trying to keep feeling good.”

Thankfully for Manchester City, they have been handed a positive update concerning Phil Foden after the first-team squad returned from a short period of sanctioned time off from football duties this week.

As reported by Ben Ransom of Sky Sports, who was present at the Manchester City training ground on Wednesday morning, Phil Foden was described as ‘moving freely’ in the open session ahead of the weekend’s fixture.

Foden joined a full compliment of Manchester City players, after Aymeric Laporte and John Stones both returned from their respective illness and injury problems, and Kyle Walker participated in preparations as normal following tabloid newspaper reports.

Manchester City will be looking towards their next outing on Saturday evening, when they travel to south London to take on Crystal Palace in the Premier League with nothing less than a victory necessary in the top-flight title race.

Reiss Nelson’s 96th minute winner against AFC Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon ensured that Arsenal avoided dropped points and registered a dramatic 3-2 victory at the Emirates Stadium after being 0-2 behind at one stage in the contest.