‘Oh no’, ‘We are finished’, ‘Cancel the season’ – Many fans fume as Man City handed fresh defensive injury scare

Manchester City have been handed a potential injury blow that could leave Pep Guardiola facing a defensive crisis ahead of a crunch run of fixtures in April.

Man City are already sweating over the fitness of defender Ruben Dias, who is currently sidelined with a hamstring problem.

Reports suggest he could return to training next week ahead of the gruelling run of fixtures, but medical staff have warned rushing him back could rule him out of more games.

John Stones is understood to have sustained a problem during the warm-up ahead of England against Switzerland at Wembley Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

He was originally named in Gareth Southgate’s England starting line-up to take on Switzerland at Wembley this evening. Ahead of kick-off, however, a late change was required after the former Everton man picked up a knock in the warm up and had to be replaced by Arsenal’s Ben White.

An update is expected to be issued after the match. A serious problem to John Stones would leave Man City with just Nathan Ake and Aymeric Laporte as their only two fit central defenders for an April fixture list.

The news was shared on Twitter by City Xtra and it attracted plenty of attention from the club’s supporters.

“Oh no….🙄”
Credit: @17King_Kev

“Just when we thought we’re gonna get dias x stones again.”
Credit: @nourmcfc

“We are finished.”
Credit: @WeetabixA

“Dias back and Stones gone. We’re never gonna get it.”
Credit: @SxrgioSZN

“Dias out, stones out. Cancel the season.”
Credit: @mbaalthani8

“Laporte x Ake partnership? yeah we going trophyless now 💀.”
Credit: @mxnciteh

“Don’t overreact lads, nobody knows how serious the injury is. And Liverpool game is in 2 weeks, so let’s wait and see..”
Credit: @mancityfever_

“Dias will be back soon and just like that Stones is gone, oh boy! I might have to watch Laporte against Salah again.”
Credit: @nathan_ie01

“We might play Liverpool and Atletico with Fernandinho at CB.”
Credit: @mcfcmam

John Stones Fitness Update

As per Fred Caldeira of TNT Sports, the first impression of John Stones’ injury is that the problem is ‘mild’, and subsequently, there is ‘less worry’ for Manchester City.

Speaking after the victory against Switzerland on Saturday night, Gareth Southgate told broadcasters that John Stones ‘felt tightness’ during the warm-up ahead of the match, and despite the problem, could be involved on Tuesday against Ivory Coast.

Southgate also clarified, much to the relief of Pep Guardiola and Manchester City supporters, that John Stones’ problem is ‘not too serious’.

The England manager said in full, “He felt something in the warm-up. We don’t think it’s too serious. It’s possible he could be okay for Tuesday (against Ivory Coast), but we didn’t have time to assess it properly before the game (against Switzerland), so we didn’t want to take any chance.”