Manchester City hit with SEVENTH injury concern following ‘muscle complaints’ during international duty

Pep Guardiola now has a seventh injury concern to contend with when his Manchester City side return to action following the latest international break.

The Premier League champions have already seen three members of their first-team squad withdraw from international commitments following problems sustained in recent training sessions and the 4-4 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Nathan Ake became the first to remove himself from Netherlands commitments following an injury picked up in the build-up to the Premier League clash in London, which also forced him to miss out on the matchday squad against Mauricio Pochettino’s side.

Ederson and Mateo Kovacic then followed as they pulled out of call-ups to Brazil and Croatia respectively, with the former having sustained a problem in his left-foot during the enthralling contest at the Bridge while the latter only featured in the final 15 minutes of the match but appeared to emerge unscathed.

Now, Pep Guardiola has been met with a second successive midfield injury to contend with depending on the severity of the problem, with national media in Portugal revealing an issue with Matheus Nunes during their build-up to international action this week.

According to the information of Mais Futebol, as translated and relayed by Sport Witness, Manchester City midfielder Matheus Nunes did not participate in Portugal’s last training session ahead of their EURO 2024 Qualification clash with Liechtenstein.

The Portuguese news outlet states that Nunes ‘presented muscle complaints’ to his national team medical staff following Tuesday’s training session. Having first reported that Nunes was a doubt for the last two games of qualifying for next summer’s European Championships, a fresh development then emerged.

Mais Futebol reported shortly after that Matheus Nunes had withdrawn from the Portugal squad, with a statement revealing that the Manchester City midfielder had been declared ‘clinically unfit’ following testing.

The Portuguese Football Federation stated, “Matheus Nunes was declared clinically unfit for the National Team’s two games against Liechtenstein and Iceland, after undergoing tests. The player will no longer travel to Zurich, it is late, with the rest of the national delegation.”

Manchester City’s injury list currently sits at six players, with the aforementioned Nathan Ake, Ederson, and Mateo Kovacic joining John Stones, Sergio Gomez, and the recovering Kevin De Bruyne on the treatment table.

Stones has already missed large parts of the ongoing season due to reoccurring muscular problems, having first sustained a hamstring issue during post-UEFA Super Cup training back in August which ruled him out of action until October.

Sergio Gomez picked up an ankle injury during a recent Manchester City training session, with the Spanish full-back forced onto crutches, but is expected back in training in some capacity following the international break.

A full breakdown of the latest state-of-play in Manchester City’s medical room can be found below.