Sancho to miss reunion with City in Euro clash
BORUSSIA Dortmund star Jadon Sancho looks ‘likely’ to miss a reunion with City on Tuesday night.
The Englishman hasn’t featured since the start of March and wasn’t involved with England’s recent camp over the international break.
Sancho is now set to miss a return to face his former club in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final, having spent two seasons at the Etihad Stadium at academy level.
Sancho didn’t train with the Borussia Dortmund squad on Sunday and the Bundesliga club’s interim manager Edin Terzic hinted that Sancho would not be fit for the game.
“With Jadon, we hope that the situation with him will change in the next seven to ten days,” Terzic said.
Reports in Germany have indicated that Sancho returned to Germany last week after working on his rehabilitation in Dubai but the game will come too soon for him.
Terzic’s timescale suggests he could be fit for the second leg of the tie against City on April 14, though the winger will have missed six weeks of action by then.
Sancho has scored six goals and provided nine assists in the Bundesliga for Dortmund, who have only won one of their last five matches.
The German side fell to a very damaging 2-1 defeat to top-four rivals Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, meaning they now trail the top-four by seven points.
Dortmund’s Champions League status could play a massive role in their hopes of gaining Erling Haaalnd’s services, with both Manchester clubs chasing his signature.
The club’s sporting director, Michael Zorc, admitted last month that their hopes of keeping the striker could hinge on finishing in the top four.
“I have never seen someone like him. We can search Europe-wide,” the Dortmund sporting director told Welt am Sonntag.
“If he ever left us somewhere, there would only be a handful of clubs, but we’ll try to keep him as long as possible.”