Mendy set for long injury absence, says Guardiola
MANCHESTER, United Kingdom: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola fears French full-back Benjamin Mendy faces months on the sidelines with injury and compared his situation to Ilkay Gundogan’s nine-month lay-off.
Mendy, signed for £50 million ($67 million) from Monaco in the summer, injured his knee during City’s weekend win over Crystal Palace and will fly to Barcelona to see Guardiola’s personal medical team for tests on Thursday.
City are still not certain the full extent of the knee injury but Guardiola nodded when asked if his absence would be measured in months.
“He is travelling to Barcelona and we are going to see what he has,” said Guardiola after City had continued their unbeaten start to the season with a 2-0 Champions League win over Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday. “Our first impression is that it will it be a little long, longer than we expected which is unfortunate. Wait but I am pretty sure it will be longer than we would like.”
“It’s very frustrating for him, first as a person but, like happened with (City midfielder) Ilkay Gundogan, I feel really sad for him.”
Guardiola, who spent £130 million on three full-backs in a 10-day period over the summer, also conceded that the injury could force his club into the transfer market in January for a replacement. “We will see in January,” he said. “We thought next summer we would look for another left-back but we will see what we will do.”
“We have alternatives in the squad — Danilo, (Fabian) Delph, Fernandinho can play there. We will see as we go along.”
City’s victory, their eighth in nine unbeaten games this season, featured goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling.
But Sergio Aguero missed a penalty which would have seen him equal Eric Brook’s club record of 177 goals which dates back to the 1930s.
Guardiola said: “It doesn’t matter that he missed a penalty. The next time he will score.”