John Stones may require surgery after Real Madrid injury confirms Pep Guardiola | OneFootball

Manchester City may have to come to terms with a second surgical operation on a central defender in two weeks, Pep Guardiola has confirmed on Friday.

The latest setback comes after Manuel Akanji was ruled out of action for the Premier League champions for a period of up to 10 weeks, after sustaining a muscular problem in the first-leg of the club’s Champions League last-16 play-off tie with Real Madrid.

That problem opened the door for Abdukodir Khusanov to start against Los Blancos in the reverse leg at the Santiago Bernabeu, in which the Uzbekistan international impressed many onlookers with his clash against Vinicius Jr on the right of City’s defence.

However, the match brought about a new concern as John Stones limped off the field with a muscular injury inside the opening 10 minutes, just moments after Kylian Mbappe had broken free in-behind the City defence to give Real Madrid an advantage.

Los Blancos would go on to win the game comfortably by a 3-1 scoreline on the night thanks to a hat-trick from the aforementioned Frenchman, securing progression into the last-16 stage of Europe’s premier club competition with a 6-3 aggregate result.

Now, speaking during his pre-match press conference ahead of the Premier League clash with Liverpool on Sunday afternoon, Pep Guardiola confirmed that a decision will need to be made in the coming days over whether John Stones requires surgery on his latest injury setback.

“He’s injured, a difficult one. (In the) Next hours, days we’ll know if he needs surgery or not. Yeah [a long period out], like Manu Akanji,” Guardiola told reporters on Friday afternoon from Manchester City’s training base.

On the specific nature of the injury, the Manchester City manager revealed, “It’s here, in front, the quadriceps,” before turning to the club’s communications manager for guidance on the official name of the muscle affected.

When his colleague did not know either, Guardiola joked, “What an assistant I have, huh?! Next year the doctor will sit here (next to me) for the amount of injuries that we have, we’ll have a doctor here to clarify exactly what they have.”

Erling Haaland remains the other injury doubt for Manchester City heading into the weekend’s clash with Liverpool, and manager Pep Guardiola was unable to offer any insight into whether the Norwegian will be available for action.

The 24-year-old striker remained on the substitutes bench for the duration of the midweek clash with Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu, in a knock-on effect from the knee problem sustained during the closing moments of last weekend’s 4-0 win over Newcastle.

Haaland is believed to have complained of difficulties and problems in his knee on the morning of the clash with Real Madrid, and the decision was made to leave him out of the contest entirely.