Guardiola hopes Aguero is over knee niggles
MANCHESTER City will make a late check to decide if their record goalscorer Sergio Aguero can play in tonight’s Champions League meeting with Marseille.
Aguero, 32, who has featured just four times this season, is pushing to return at the Etihad Stadium after missing the last three games having felt discomfort in his knee.
Pep Guardiola says Saturday’s derby against Manchester United will play no part in his thinking but City are wary about taking risks, with the Argentine’s return from knee surgery last summer having
already been complicated by a hamstring injury.
‘We are going to decide tomor
row,’ said City boss Guardiola. ‘Maybe he is on the bench. We are going to do a training session and see how his reaction is in his body, not just his knee.
‘The last two, three, four days he was part of the group in the training and his reaction and the niggles he had in the recent past were disappeared.’ With the game a dead rubber for City, who are already guaranteed top spot in Group C, Guardiola has suggested he may make wholesale changes.
However, he insisted that would be to ensure everyone in his squad has had the game time needed to stay sharp rather than to give players a rest with the weekend trip to Old Trafford in mind.
‘We’re going to play the game to win the game and I don’t rotate the team,’ said Guardiola. ‘I try to put all the players in the best condition for any game and decide the best team for this specific game.
‘There is not one team for one competition and one for another one. It is important the last few days that, except for one or two players, everybody was involved.
‘Everybody has to be to be ready. I don’t rest players.’