Man City handed fresh injury blow after international decision made

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• John Stones

Manchester City centre-back John Stones has withdrawn from the England squad due to injury concerns.

John Stones has trained with England this week

John Stones has added to Manchester City's injury concerns after he was forced to pull out of England's international camp with muscle issues.

Stones is the latest City player to miss this week's internationals. Three Lions boss Thomas Tuchel said he didn't want to risk the centre-back in World Cup qualifiers against Andorra on Saturday and Serbia on Tuesday, although he had trained at St George's Park on Wednesday and Thursday

The 31-year-old has started all three City games so far this season and played the full 90 minutes at Brighton before meeting up with England. He suffered an injury-plagued season last term and didn't play after limping out of a Champions League play-off defeat to Real Madrid in mid-February.

Stones' return to form and fitness has been a boost for Pep Guardiola at the start of this campaign, but given his recent injury issues, no risks will be taken with him, which is why he has been released from England duty.

“Unfortunately, John Stones [has] just left,” Tuchel said on Friday.

“He came with minor muscle issues to camp and didn’t progress the way we thought and hoped he would so he left camp this morning because we will not take the risk against Andorra and also unfortunately against Serbia.”

A Manchester City statement said Stones had pulled out of the squad as a "precautionary measure".

He is the latest player to suffer an injury setback this week. Fellow centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov withdrew from Uzbekistan duty with a calf injury that makes him a fitness doubt for the derby next weekend. Rico Lewis and Nico O'Reilly both pulled out of England Under-21 duty.

Guardiola will give an update on their fitness when he faces the press ahead of the Etihad derby next Friday. Savinho is set to return to training after his own injury issues, but Josko Gvardiol, Mateo Kovacic and Rayan Cherki are all absent.

Phil Foden missed the defeat at Brighton as he continues to try and get back to fitness after ankle issues.

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