Gallery: Manchester City complete penultimate training session in sunshine ahead of Nottingham Forest showdown | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City squad have completed their penultimate training session before their return to match action on Saturday lunchtime.

It is a mammoth weekend of action for the Premier League champions as the club travel to the City Ground to take on one of the division’s biggest surprises, with third-placed Nottingham Forest taking on fourth-placed City.

Having been knocked out of the Carabao Cup, top-flight title race, and the UEFA Champions League, ensuring qualification for next season’s premier club competition in Europe becomes the absolute priority for Guardiola and his players.

That alongside one final hunt for silverware to add some shine to a disappointing campaign too, with Manchester City into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup where an away trip to Bournemouth at the end of the month awaits.

Sunshine has been beaming over Manchester throughout this week and that has brought with it plenty of smiles into the City camp as training continued on Thursday afternoon at the City Football Academy.

The usual absentees were maintained following recent injury and fitness blows with Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji, and John Stones all remaining sidelined, while Rodri is believed to be continuing his own individual training plan on the grass.

After another completed session at Manchester City’s training base, here is a selection of photos from inside the camp as preparations continued before the weekend’s hugely important Premier League clash!

Outfield Manchester City players spotted in training photos

Matheus Nunes, Rico Lewis, Abdukodir Khusanov, Ruben Dias, Max Alleyne, Vitor Reis, Nico O’Reilly, Josko Gvardiol.

Nico Gonzalez, Mateo Kovacic, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, James McAtee, Claudio Echeverri, Phil Foden.

Savinho, Omar Marmoush, Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku.

Note: This list may not be complete and could be missing players present in the session.