Pep hopeful for Grealish

PEP GUARDIOLA played down talk of Jack Grealish’s shin injury being bad enough to keep him out for a month, with the Manchester City boss hopeful his £100million man can travel to Portugal this week.

Record signing Grealish struggled with his shin while at Aston Villa and the 26-year-old England international missed yesterday’s trip to Norwich because of a slight recurrence of that issue in training.

Scans will confirm the extent of the damage but Guardiola said he hopes the player will be fit for Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Sporting Lisbon.

It’s a key month ahead for City, including a Manchester derby in the Premier League and two round-of-16 legs against Sporting. After yesterday’s 4-0 win, in which Raheem Sterling stepped up by scoring a perfect hat-trick, Guardiola said: ‘For his confidence, it will be massive. The first goal is brilliant. When Raheem executes without thinking he is excellent. I am so happy for him because strikers need to score for confidence for the next games.’

Norwich boss Dean Smith, whose side remain in the relegation zone and face Liverpool next, said: ‘I felt the manner of the goals weren’t wonderful against us.’

On the spot-kick, given for a foul by Grant Hanley on Liam Delap which led to City’s fourth goal, Smith added: ‘It’ll probably get a tick on (PGMOL chief) Mike Riley’s stats calendar but that’s never a penalty.’