You can now add Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling to the list of England players who have missed/will miss significant time in 2020 due to injury. Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane is out for perhaps the rest of the Premier League season, or close to it.
Manchester United centre forward Marcus Rashford is out until mid March or perhaps mid April, and as we learned today Sterling is out for “weeks.” Three Lions manager Gareth Southgate has heard plenty of bad news for his side thus far this year.
City manager Pep Guardiola, who has also seen Leroy Sane, Sergio Aguero and Aymeric Laporte miss significant time this season, gave his pre-match press conference ahead of the Citizens’ home league fixture against West Ham United on Sunday.
“It’s a hamstring injury, we will see,” he said. “It takes weeks, but I don’t know [his status] right now.”
“It’s a problem being without him, but we were without Gundo in the first season and Laporte this season, it is what it is.”
It was put to Pep the idea of Sane coming back sooner with Sterling out of commission for awhile, but the Spaniard rejected this idea. The City manager said Sane is coming back strong, but is still a ways away from being available for selection.
“He’s started to train with us, he needs to recover the tempo and confidence, don’t think about the injury,” Guardiola continued. “It’s not like an ankle or a muscular injury, it needs time. He’s training with the main group, he needs weeks.”
West Ham United at Manchester City FYIs
February 9, 4:30 pm, City of Manchester Stadium
Team news for both sides: go to this link
Starting XI Predictions for both sides: go to this link
TV: Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Main Event
Google Result Probabilities: West Ham United win 4% Draw 9% Manchester City win 87%
Odds via Sports Bet: West Ham United win 21/1 Draw 11/1 Manchester City win 1.08/1
Form Guide: West Ham United DLLDL Manchester City LWDWW
Prediction: Manchester City 3, West Ham United 0
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link