Injured De Bruyne likely to be out for two months

Manchester City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne could face a spell on the sidelines after injuring his right knee in training, the Premier League champions said yesterday.

De Bruyne, 27, who enjoyed a superb World Cup as Belgium reached the semi-finals, is undergoing tests to assess the seriousness of the injury.

“The extent of the problem is not yet known and we will bring you further updates on Kevin’s condition in due course,” a club statement on its website read.

According to British newspaper the Metro, De Bruyne faces two months out after suffering the injury when he caught his studs in the turf, leaving the training ground on crutches.

The Daily Telegraph said he had suffered knee ligament damage similar to the injury he sustained in a league game with Everton in January 2016 that kept him out of the team for two months.

Due to being given three weeks off following the World Cup, he did not play a role in the Community Shield win against Chelsea, but came on for a cameo role of half an hour in the 2-0 opening Premier League victory over Arsenal last Sunday.

Earlier, De Bruyne had said that a successful season for City would be winning backto-back Premier League titles, rather than the Uefa Champions League, because the latter does not demand the same level of consistency to win.

De Bruyne was pivotal to Pep Guardiola’s record-breaking team last term that saw them set several league records. The Belgian playmaker’s eight goals and 16 assists helped City clinch the title by a margin of 19 points and become the first English top-flight club to reach 100 points in a season.

No team has defended the Premier League title since Manchester United in 2009.

The Champions League, however, has eluded City’s grasp, with the high-flying side falling in the semi-finals in 2016 and knocked out by rivals Liverpool in the quarter-finals last term.

“I don’t agree that we have to win the Champions League to be a success. It is a big title to win, but in the Champions League, you don’t need to have the consistency that you need in the league,” De Bruyne told the BBC.

“We were great for the whole year, maybe a bit less against Liverpool, and so we were out. It is a tournament, you need to be good at the right time.

“In the league, if you have a bad spell then you are running behind. It is a different prospect – cup games are different to a league.”