The latest on Youri Tielemans, Harvey Barnes, and Phil Foden ahead of Manchester City vs Leicester City (Premier League)

Manchester City take on Leicester City this weekend as they look to further pile on the pressure on a somewhat faltering Arsenal side at the top of the division.

With the Premier League title challenge rumbling on deeper into the season, City are putting together a remarkable run of winning form at the perfect time, increasing their hopes of securing a third successive top-flight crown.

Arsenal currently hold a six-point lead over Manchester City in the Premier League, although the direction of the crown remains very much in the hands of the reigning Champions with their game in hand and clash against Mikel Arteta’s side in the coming weeks.

City’s squad remains very much at full strength too at the most important stage of the season, offering Pep Guardiola the perfect opportunity to rotate his starting eleven as and when he wishes to do so.

As for Leicester City, who have a fight on their hands in order to remain a Premier League team next season, they have a number of problems to contend with giving newly-appointed Dean Smith a huge challenge in the weeks that remain.

Ahead of the return of Premier League football this weekend, here is all the very latest team news and injury updates from both camps!

Manchester City

Phil Foden remains the only absentee from Manchester City’s squad for the visit of Leicester City this weekend, as the England international continues to recover from surgery on his appendix during the most recent break from club football.

The City academy product is expected to step up his recovery towards full fitness in the coming days, with the feeling in some quarters being that he is targeting a return for the Premier League clash against Arsenal later this month.

Speaking on Friday afternoon, the Manchester City boss said, “I think he will be back to the training centre to be with the doctors. I think he feels better. I spoke with the doctor three days ago and he feels better. But still he’s not ready.

“I don’t know (when we will have him available). We he starts to train you will know it, from our social media, I think so. After that he will be closer to coming back, but still he cannot train with us.”

Kevin De Bruyne provided an injury scare in midweek, after he was substituted just moments after seemingly hobbling around the Etihad surface, but Pep Guardiola confirmed it was a tactical change at that time in the win over Bayern Munich.

Leicester City

In a significant blow to Dean Smith’s options ahead of his first match in charge of the Foxes, Leicester City will be without Harvey Barnes for the trip to the Etihad Stadium this weekend due to a hamstring problem.

In defence, Smith also confirmed that Ricardo Pereira will be absent from his defensive options on Saturday evening as the Portugal international also recovers from a hamstring problem sustained last weekend.

Dean Smith told the media on Friday, “We’ve got a couple of players missing at the moment, in some key areas. Harvey (Barnes) got injured in the last game and will be out for Saturday and touch and go for next Saturday.

“Ricky (Pereira) felt his hamstring after the game last week as well. His injury looks a little bit worse than Harvey’s. So I think he’s going to be out for a few weeks, whereas Harvey’s is in an area of the hamstring that you’re a little bit less concerned about.”

In more positive news however, Youri Tielemans and Jonny Evans are both back in for contention this weekend, despite the amount of game-time they could undertake on Saturday still remaining somewhat uncertain.

The Leicester City boss explained, “Youri (Tielemans) hasn’t done a lot of minutes in training, so we’ll have to assess whether he’s ready to start or, or to come on a sub. I look at the likes of him, the likes of Johnny and I think they give the team calmness, they give them experience but they give them quality as well. So they’re going to be very important.”