Castagne texted to say ‘sorry’ over injury

TIMOTHY Castagne apologised for leaving Brendan Rodgers short of players after suffering an injury setback.

The Belgian international was lined up to fill in at centre-back against Watford, but after a late assessment by the medical team, he was ruled out.

That left Rodgers with just eight senior outfield players, with Hamza Choudhury forced to drop back and partner Jannik Vestergaard at the heart of the defence.

Knowing how few fit and available players the club have, Castagne was apologetic for his absence, Rodgers has said.

The full-back has a dead leg, but one that does not seem to be going away, and so more treatment will be needed this week ahead of Saturday’s trip to Burnley.

Rodgers said: “Timothy Castagne, he’s messaging me and apologising because he knows the team is suffering.

“These guys are doing everything they can to play.

“I’m waiting on more information from the medical team.

“He’s got a dead leg where normally with some treatment and some work on that, it goes away but the blood is still continuing to come into the area, which is making it difficult for him.

“I’m waiting to get clarity from our medical team.

“He was out on Friday trying to give it everything, but he was only at 65 per cent really. He was doing everything he could, but he’s played a lot of games back to back, so that’s where that has come from.”

Of City’s 11 recognised senior defenders, Vestergaard was the only one who was fit on Saturday, with Choudhury called upon to play at centre-back, and Marc Alrbighton and Vontae Daley-Campbell fielded at fullback.

Caglar Soyuncu and Luke Thomas could be back for the trip to Turf Moor, but Ricardo Pereira, Jonny Evans, Wesley Fofana, Ryan Bertrand, and Filip Benkovic remain unavailable and Daniel Amartey is at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Caution is being shown over James Justin after he played his first game in 11 months with a run-out for the Under-23s on Saturday.