Newcastle v Manchester City: Pep Guardiola's pre-match injury update

The Manchester City manager gave an update on Rodri's knee injury and Kevin De Bruyne's availability this weekend.

Transcript

00:00I'm outside Manchester City's media centre where this afternoon Pep Guardiola has held

00:04his pre-match press conference ahead of the game against Newcastle on Saturday.

00:08The big story was always going to be Rodri, with today Pep Guardiola confirming that the

00:12Spanish midfielder won't play at all again this season.

00:15Of course he suffered that knee injury last weekend against Arsenal, there have been lots

00:19of little updates on Rodri across the course of this week.

00:23Guardiola confirming that he was out for a long time on Tuesday, the club confirming

00:27he'd suffered a knee ligament injury, but today Guardiola confirmed it is an ACL injury

00:32and a meniscus injury and Rodri will not play again this season.

00:36Guardiola actually wanted to stress that it's not just an injury he thinks about in terms

00:40of eight, nine months' time, he wants to ensure that when the player comes back he doesn't

00:43suffer any minor muscular injuries and he sees it as a long-term process to get Rodri

00:49back to his best.

00:50A huge blow for Manchester City of course, probably the most important player in their

00:53side and the record speaks volumes whenever he's not on the team compared to when he is

00:57back.

00:58But Guardiola spoke again about trying to find the solutions without him, said that

01:02it won't just be one player, said that they don't have a like-for-like replacement for

01:05the midfielder, said it's going to have to be a combination of players, he said something

01:10like all together we can replace him but not one individual player.

01:14It's going to be a huge talking point over the next couple of weeks and months I think.

01:18Guardiola trying to find the solution and the answer to how his team function efficiently

01:22without Rodri.

01:23And the only other major news from today was that Kevin De Bruyne is also out.

01:27He was a doubt coming into the game and has missed the last two with a minor injury.

01:31Not a long-term problem but he isn't going to be back in time to face Newcastle.

01:35It means that City are going to travel there without Rodri, De Bruyne, Nathan Ake and Oscar

01:39Bobbs.

01:40So without four players at this stage of the season, not ideal, but certainly City will

01:44know they've got enough strength and depth to put out a very strong team at St. James's

01:47Park.