Man City leave nine stars out of squad for Palermo friendly amid transfer and injury update

Manchester City will take 22 players to Italy for the fixture

Jack Grealish is not part of the Manchester City squad for the club's friendly against Palermo

Manchester City have named a 22-man squad for Saturday's friendly with Palermo - with nine stars absent.

Jack Grealish, James McAtee and Stefan Ortega are out as the trio continue to pursue moves elsewhere. City are in talks with Everton over a potential loan move for Grealish while McAtee has attracted interest from the Bundesliga and Nottingham Forest among others. Ortega has slipped down the pecking order at the Etihad following the summer arrival of James Trafford.

Rodri, Phil Foden, Josko Gvardiol and Claudio Echeverri are also missing with the quartet deemed not fully fit to travel.

It raises the question of whether the four will be fit for the Premier League opener against Wolves next weekend. Echeverri picked up an injury at the Club World Cup while Rodri is being carefully managed on his return from a serious injury although the midfielder did feature in the States. All four players were involved in City's open training session earlier this week.

Injured midfield pair Mateo Kovacic and Kalvin Phillips are also absent from the squad list for the game against City's sister club. Nico O'Reilly is included after the youngster missed open training on Tuesday with a knock.

Young prospect Divine Mukasa is included in the travelling party. The 17-year-old arrived at City from West Ham in 2023 and has caught the eye in the academy.

The fixture kicks off at 8pm UK time on Saturday night.

City squad vs Palermo (in squad number order): James Trafford, Ruben Dias, Tijjani Reijnders, John Stones, Nathan Ake, Omar Marmoush, Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku, Nico Gonzalez, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Manu Akanji, Savinho, Matheus Nunes, Rayan Cherki, Ederson, Nico O’Reilly, Abdukodir Khusanov, Oscar Bobb,Divine Mukasa, Rico Lewis

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