CITY SPECIAL Mendy vows Bravo adds to City’s injury woes to do talking on the pitch
CITY’S second-choice goalkeeper Claudio Bravo is facing a lengthy spell out after suffering an Achilles tendon injury in training, the club have announced.
The Chilean was hurt during a session yesterday and the injury was confirmed following scans.
No timescale has yet been put on the 35-year-old’s recovery.
A statement from the club read: “Manchester City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo has sustained an Achilles tendon injury in today’s training session.
“The Chilean keeper underwent scans this afternoon which have confirmed a rupture in the tendon of his left foot.
“He will fly out to Barcelona for further tests on Thursday where the extent of the injury will be examined.”
The injury leaves Pep Guardiola without an experienced back-up to firstchoice keeper Ederson.
Daniel Grimshaw, 20, is the only other keeper in the firstteam squad but he has not yet made a senior appearance.
Bravo tweeted: “No matter what happens, or how bad it looks today, life will go on, and tomorrow will certainly be better.”
Bravo’s injury comes a week after playmaker Kevin de Bruyne was also injured in a training session, suffering knee ligament damage that will rule him out for three months.
Bravo ousted Joe Hart when he joined City from Barcelona in 2016 but lost his place to Ederson after an indifferent first season. Claudio Bravo suffered an Achilles tendon injury yesterday BENJAMIN Mendy vowed not to change after his manager Pep Guardiola gave him a warning about social media.
But the flying City left-back says he has taken the gaffer’s comments on board – and realised there is a time and a place for having fun on Instagram and Twitter.
Mendy became a big hit with the Blues’ younger fans last season, for his lively – and occasionally hilarious ASKED about an excellent Benjamin Mendy performance at Arsenal, Pep Guardiola pointed out that the City defender has times when he infuriates and needs to spend less time on social media.
Asked about another excellent Mendy performance against – exploits on social media, even though he missed most of the campaign through injury. He has started this season in remarkable style on the pitch, already chalking up five assists in two games.
Guardiola was happy for Mendy to run riot with his phone last season, as it occupied him while recovering from his knee ligament injury.
But after the opening-day win at Arsenal, the manager half-jokingly hoped that the player would start spending less time on it, and focus more on developing as a player. Huddersfield, the City manager was again anything but overboard in his assessment.
“We know his physicality. Now we have one game a week so we have time to recover but I don’t know what is going to happen when we play every three days, especially in winter time.”
Given the amount of time City were without one of their key men last year and the niggles associated
Mendy could not resist tweeting “Oops” in response, but he says he has already heeded the manager’s words.
“I know the fans love it, but the manager is the chief of the team, so when he says something I have to listen to him,” he said.
“Every player understands this. So in the dressing room, everywhere, I don’t pick up my phone.
“The manager is the manager. If he says something, I need to listen to him.
“So I keep low, and on the pitch I give everything for the team and the fans.
“We have an amazing stadium so we need to enjoy it and that’s what I try to do every day.
“Every time I am with my phone I am on Instagram or Twitter and just now I need to be careful. When I am at the training centre, the CFA, I don’t use my phone but instead I listen to the manager.”
Whatever he is doing, it is working. Mendy assisted both goals at with returning from long-term injuries, it is understandable not to build Mendy up too quickly.
However, public caution over Mendy will be married with private delight at the quickfire start of a player that was not expected to be so good so soon.
Even if his body cannot (yet) handle the rigours of three games a week, if the coach is planning for a crucial game it seems unthinkable to Arsenal last week, and he was instrumental in two of Sergio Aguero’s hat-trick and Gabriel Jesus’s goal in the 6-1 thrashing of Huddersfield. Anyone wondering who would fill the gap left by Kevin de Bruyne’s injury need look no further. The Belgian was the top assister in the Premier League last season with 16, but Mendy is nearly a third of the way to that total after two games. And he admits he has one thing in common with De Bruyne – he enjoys an assist more than a goal. “We are not the same – Kevin is Kevin, an amazing player, and I give my best for the team,” he said. “But I prefer an assist to scoring a goal – for me it’s more beautiful. “It is my vision. If I can score but there is a player to pass to, I give them the ball. “I have worked a lot for this but the first thing is that the team played very well. We focussed on the objective – the first home game is very important for the fans and my team-mates.” leave Mendy out given what he has shown he can offer to the team.
Last season, Mendy’s contributions of 11 crosses (away at Bournemouth) and nine crosses (away at Watford) were at least two more than any other player managed across the course of the Premier League campaign, and against Huddersfield he managed 12.
For a forward line prepared to be devastating in small spaces, there