Manchester City: Aymeric Laporte ruled out until September after undergoing knee surgery
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Updated 29/07/2022 at 13:26 GMT
Aymeric Laporte had been absent from Manchester City's pre-season preparations for the defence of the Premier League title, and Pep Guardiola has now confirmed that the centre-half will miss the start of the season. Laporte revealed after the end of last season that he had battled through a knee injury to help Manchester City pip Liverpool to the title.
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Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte has been ruled out until September.
Laporte underwent knee surgery after battling through injury in the final weeks of last season.
The centre-half withdrew from Spain's squad for the Nations League games in June and had missed Manchester City's preseason preparations for the defence of their Premier League title.
Pep Guardiola has now confirmed that Laporte will miss the opening fixtures of the new Premier League season.
"He had surgery after the last few games [last season], he made an incredible effort," Guardiola revealed ahead of the Community Shield.
"He had surgery, he's doing incredibly well, you have to be careful. It's his knee, he might be out until September."
Manchester City take on Liverpool at the King Power Stadium in Leicester this weekend in the traditional curtain-raiser for the new season.
They open their Premier League campaign against West Ham on Sunday August 7.
Guardiola has been boosted by the return to full fitness of Ruben Dias, who managed nearly an hour in the preseason win over Bayern Munich, while John Stones, Phil Foden and Ilkay Gundogan are available having been unable to enter the United States.
Nathan Ake, who has been linked with a move to Chelsea this summer, could be a beneficiary of Laporte's lay-off.
The club have brought in Erling Haaland and Kalvin Phillips during the transfer window and both appear likely to feature against Liverpool.
Well-regarded youngster Julian Alvarez has also returned from his loan at River Plate, and Guardiola hopes that he can get the best out of his new recruits by adapting to their strengths.
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“We are not going to change the way we play,” the Manchester City manager insisted.
“We’re going to adapt the quality that the players have to be involved in the way we play, but we are not going to change the way we play.
“Why should we change the way we play when we did really quite well in these last seasons?
“But we want Erling, Julian and Kalvin, and of course, [reserve goalkeeper] Stefan [Ortega], we want the best of them, the best version of them, adapting what you want to play.
“I’m pretty sure it’s happened. It’s [been] just a few days together, but the feeling is really good for all of them.”
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