Fleming’s in charge at City while Pearson’s absent

then joint issues... it was a difficult time,” Pearson explained of that time.

“Through August and September, I was particularly unwell for sure. But the medication I’m on now is certainly helping a lot, and there’ll be a lot of people out there experiencing the same.”

Former City boss Steve Cotterill also suffered from the virus earlier this year and was absent from the sidelines at Shrewsbury Town towards the end of last season, before emotionally talking about his recovery and time spent in hospital at Bristol.

■ Gareth Southgate is expected to name a largely tried and tested England squad today ahead of the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Hungary.

With the Three Lions in control of Group I, they travel to the Pyrenees to face Andorra on October 9 before hosting Hungary at Wembley three days later.

For the September triple-header, Southgate stuck with the majority of the squad which took England to the final of Euro 2020 earlier in the summer. There will have to be changes this time around with Manchester United skipper Harry Maguire likely to miss out with a calf problem and Trent Alexander-Arnold suffering an adductor injury in Liverpool training earlier this week. While Southgate has plenty of options in defence, those injuries could present an opportunity for the likes of Ben White, Fikayo Tomori or Joe Gomez to earn recalls.

The home fixture against Hungary will be an emotional one with tributes to Jimmy Greaves and fellow 1966 World Cup winner Roger Hunt, who died this week, with the Football Association finalising plans on how the players will be remembered.