5 days ago
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Manchester City midfielder Rodri is expected to miss more games with his return date from a hamstring injury still unknown.
Pep Guardiola does not know when Rodri will be able to return to a Manchester City matchday squad as his hamstring issues persist. The Spanish midfielder will definitely sit out the midweek trip to Fulham and could also miss the home game with Sunderland at the weekend as the Blues refuse to rush their star back.
It has been nearly three months since Rodri went down at Brentford with a hamstring problem, and at the time he played down the extent of the injury. While it meant he would have to pull out of the October international break, the 29-year-old suggested he could return in a matter of weeks.
Rodri would in fact miss four games, before returning in the final minutes of the win over Bournemouth. However, he has not made a squad in any of the four subsequent matches and is set to miss even more with a return date unclear.
"Rodri is making good steps, it’s almost three weeks since the last step back," Guardiola said last month. "He knows that he has to take the time to recover mentally and especially physically with the problems that he’s had, to be consistent from now until the end."
Nico Gonzalez has started each of the last seven matches and may well continue his run at Fulham, with Rodri and Mateo Kovacic - who has been sidelined for nearly all of the season - the only other options Guardiola had planned to use in holding midfield. Tijjani Reijnders, John Stones or Rico Lewis could also be used there but none are ideal options.
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