Healed Jesus in final lift for City
GABRIEL JESUS is pushing for a place on Manchester City’s bench for the Carabao Cup final against Arsenal on Sunday.
The Brazilian striker has missed City’s last 12 matches after damaging medial knee ligaments in the New Year’s Eve game at Crystal Palace.
But after a fortnight of training on his own Jesus returned to full duties with the rest of Pep Guardiola’s squad last Friday and, with a full week’s work now under his belt, is set to be part of the City squad at Wembley.
The 21-year-old revealed recently that he had sought advice from Brazilian legend Ronaldo after admitting he was struggling to rebuild confidence in the knee.
Meanwhile young Ukrainian defender Oleksandr Zinchenko is favourite to play at left-back following Fabian Delph’s dismissal in City’s shock FA Cup defeat at Wigan on Monday.
And Benjamin Mendy, who would have been filling the left-back slot at Wembley but for a ruptured cruciate ligament suffered last September, has received a boost in his recovery from Didier Deschamps.
The France manager says Mendy still has a chance of making his squad for the World Cup if the former Monaco defender returns for City before the end of the season.
“He’s making good progress, if not very good,” said Deschamps. “Now he needs to rediscover his rhythm in training with the squad, then resume competitive football. But he’ll do everything he can, I know he has the desire.
“He has a chance, absolutely. Today, I don’t have a definite answer, but neither does he. He’s doing everything he can to regain his condition.
“There’s no point in taking shortcuts. He must recover his flexibility and his ability to stretch the joint so that he is no longer apprehensive about it.”