City could face keeper crisis in the New Year

MANCHESTER City are already due to be without Riyad Mahrez for most of January – or all of it, if he repeats his African Cup of Nations success from two years ago.

Now, though, they will also be preparing for another three key players to be absent at a crucial period of the season as CONMEBOL and CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers take place.

With the majority of City’s players involved with European qualifiers, which concluded this week, there will be no international football for their UEFA players until March. Some, like Aleks Zinchenko and the three Portuguese players, will have to contest play-offs to qualify for the World Cup.

However, qualifying is yet to finish in the Americas, with an extra international window sanctioned in January throwing a spanner in the works of City’s preparations that month.

Luckily, the Premier League takes a break between City’s trip to Southampton on January 22 and the home fixture against Brentford on February 9. That is due to a ‘winter break’ of a week as well as the FA Cup fourth round.

However, that means that City’s Brazilian and USA players will likely be called up for international duty in that period, depriving them of a break after a busy Christmas period.

As well as Mahrez’s absence, City have the depth to cope with Gabriel Jesus’s expected absence for that possible FA Cup tie, but things get more worrying when they factor in the likelihood of Ederson and Zack Steffen both being picked by their countries.

That could leave City without their two senior goalkeepers for a possible cup fixture, leaving Scott Carson their most senior option. Alternatively, Ciaran Slicker has been involved in first team training this year and is a regular for the under-23s.

Carson made his only appearance for City in last year’s 4-3 win at Newcastle, where he saved a penalty but saw the rebound scored.

He is a popular figure in the City squad, and has plenty of experience to deputise if needed, but the situation is far from ideal with Steffen usually the designated FA Cup goalkeeper.