'We are going to play a few young players' - Pep Guardiola concerned by mounting Manchester City injury list

ByEurosport

Updated 19/09/2021 at 21:52 GMT

“Now we are going to play the Carabao Cup,” City boss Guardiola said. “We are going to see how many people recover for the next days because we are in difficult conditions. But we will go there and to London and [Paris] to play good games. We are going to play a few young players, some first-team players."

Pep Guardiola is facing an injury crisis and will likely field a host of youngsters when Manchester City face Wycombe in the Carabao Cup.

City have won the Carabao Cup for the past four seasons, and Guardiola will have an eye on making it five in a row.

His side drew 0-0 with Southampton on Saturday, and are three points adrift of Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United in the Premier League.

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Following the game with Wycombe, City face Chelsea in the league on Saturday before a meeting with Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League the following Tuesday.

Guardiola has fitness concerns over Ilkay Gundogan, Rodri, Aymeric Laporte, John Stones and Oleksandr Zinchenko, while Phil Foden only recently returned to action.

“Now we are going to play the Carabao Cup,” Guardiola said. “We are going to see how many people recover for the next days because we are in difficult conditions. But we will go there and to London and [Paris] to play good games.

We are going to play a few young players, some first-team players, but some will rest for the games we have ahead of us,

“A few players from the academy are going to play because we have John, Aymeric, Rodri, Oleksandr, I think Gundogan, all of them are injured.

“Rodri had some muscular problems, not big but I don’t know how many days, the doctors could not tell me.

“Ruben [Dias] and Joao [Cancelo] played all the minutes and I do not think they will be able to play in this game. We will see. We don’t have four or five days, we have three to make a good selection. It’s an opportunity for the academy, that’s why they are there.”

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