‘OMG He’s Back’, ‘We didn’t see that coming’ – Many fans react as Man City get ‘huge’ injury boost ahead of Real Madrid fixture

Kyle Walker trained with Manchester City on Tuesday ahead of their Champions League game with Real Madrid but John Stones did not.

Ahead of the trip to Spain, the Premier League champions completed their final pre-match session at the Etihad Campus, and had a 23-man squad involved in training.

Walker’s return is a huge boost, with the full-back missing the first leg and has not played since 13 April due to an ankle injury he picked up in the quarter-final second-leg draw away to Atletico Madrid.

As for Ake, he’s been managing an ankle injury over recent weeks and was forced to come off in the weekend win over Leeds United.

However, in more disappointing news, John Stones wasn’t part of the group that trained on Tuesday afternoon, putting his involvement in the second leg into doubt.

The former Everton man picked up a muscular knock in the recent win over Brighton & Hove Albion, which he exacerbated again last week in the first-leg win over Real.

Stones was replaced in the first half of that fixture, with Fernandinho deputising at right-back. But that shouldn’t be the case on Wednesday, with Joao Cancelo returning from a suspension that ruled him out of the first leg.

It means City will travel to the game with Walker, Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte and Oleksandr Zinchenko definitely fit to play, while Pep Guardiola will hope Ake and Walker are able to feature.

Squad in full: Carson, Ederson, Steffen, Dias, Ake, Laporte, Walker, Cancelo, Egan-Riley, Zinchenko, Fernandinho, Rodri, Lavia, Gundogan, De Bruyne, McAtee, Silva, Palmer, Foden, Grealish, Mahrez, Sterling, Jesus.

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

“OMG He’s Back”
Credit: @JesusRoIe

“Wow am very excited. Hope he’s gonna be fit to play on Wednesday..”
Credit: @AlliNury

“Best news of the day.”
Credit: @Nichola86325882

“The news we’ve all been waiting for!.”
Credit: @1880MCFC

“Vinicius ain’t ready”
Credit: @khushan_pro

“Yeahhh… We didn’t see that coming”
Credit: @Kimbanor

“Brilliant news, even if he don’t make it for second leg will be massive help for last 4 games in Premier league”
Credit: @CambrookJac

“Huge, ain’t no messing about it now”
Credit: @Cityzen932

“If Walker is FULLY fit, then of course I’d love to see him play tomorrow. However if not, I’d rather not run the risk of losing him for the rest of the season.
I’d happily see Cancelo at right-back at Zinny on the left..”
Credit: @TomYoungSJ

“I wouldn’t start him. I don’t think we necessarily need him and he could further aggravate his injury like stones.
Cancelo, Dias, Laporte, Zinchenko
Should be more than capable of being solid enough..”
Credit: @CityXtraPod

“What great news to see this Tuesday dinner time.. I cant see him starting tomorrow night but least on the bench to maybe come on? Time will tell. Anyway good to hear Kyles back in training”
Credit: @mikepriestley13