Manchester City will be without the services of five key players, due to injury, when they host Aston Villa on Tuesday night. Four of them, Erling Haaland, Ederson, John Stones and Nathan Ake, will be back at some point before the season ends. City manager Pep Guardiola provided an update on the foursome over the weekend, which included a 2-0 win over Everton yesterday.
Let’s get to Pep’s updates, starting with Haaland, and his ankle/foot problem.
Aston Villa at Manchester City FYIs
Kick-off time: 3PM GMT, Tuesday, April 22, Etihad Stadium, Manchester, UK
Form Guide Premier League: Aston Villa WWWWW Manchester City DWDWW
More about Chicago Fire FC transfer target Kevin de Bruyne.
Team News: Aston Villa Manchester City
Starting Lineup Predictions: Aston Villa Manchester City
Premier League Position: Aston Villa 57 pts, 6th Manchester City 4th, 58 pts
Result Probability: Aston Villa win 25% Draw 23% Manchester City win 52%
Man City Team News
“[He’s] not training either,” the boss said of the giant Nordic scoring machine. “The next games, he won’t be ready.”
The original timeline was mid-May for Haaland, and it appears that’s where we still are, right now, with Haaland.
On Ake (also an ankle/foot problem) and Stones (thigh/hamstring), Guardiola stated: “Getting better, but not yet.”
So it’s still looking like sometime in May, as the range for return, for both of these defenders. And then finally, how the about the #1 guy in between the sticks?
[Ederson] is not ready for tomorrow,” Pep said on Friday.
“I don’t know [when he will be available]. For the game, he is not ready.”
Let’s just go with out indefinitely for now, and reconvene on that later.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter