Not the end of the world for Laporte

where he was only the second Frenchman after Bixente Lizarazu to play for the Basque side. Laporte, 24, is understood to be mulling over his international future, but refused to be drawn on it. “That’s not what I’m here to talk about,” said the centre-half.

Laporte missed City’s 1-0 defeat by Borussia Dortmund in their opening US tour match in the International Champions Cup because of a minor knock.

But he should return soon and is keen to build on his successful start to his City career under Pep Guardiola. “I’ve had a really good six months here,” he said. “We won two trophies and obviously we won a lot of games.

“It would have been nice if we’d played in the later rounds of the Champions League, but that’s something we can work towards this year.

“Pep is the best manager in the world. He’s always looking to help me get better and improve my game.”

Laporte has the chance to stake an early claim to start against Arsenal in City’s first game of their title defence on August 12 because he is the only one of their four senior centre-halves on tour.

John Stones and Vincent Kompany will not report back for pre-season training until just a week before the season and Laporte praised the Englishman’s performances in Russia.

“He had really good games,” he said. “He had a good competition overall and even scored some goals.

“We have lots of good players here. Everyone wants to start.”