Man City dealt injury blow as star absent from first-team training ahead of United game

Manchester City have been hit with a significant selection headache ahead of Sunday afternoon’s Manchester derby at the Etihad Stadium.

Pep Guardiola’s first-team members returned to the club ahead of the Manchester derby on Sunday afternoon, with several previous concerns spotted in training as normal.

Pep Guardiola’s first-team stars played two matches with their respective nations across multiple levels and competitions for the final time before the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

The obvious concern for all those associated with Manchester City is how many stars would return fully-fit ahead of a crunch run of fixtures across October.

Perhaps in encouraging news for Manchester City, only one player has returned to the North-West with concerns over his fitness.

John Stones was not involved in the latest City training session, as per Sky Sports, meaning Stones is a major doubt for Sunday’s clash with Manchester United.

The defender was forced to be withdrawn in the first half of England’s 3-3 draw with Germany on Monday night, and appeared to grimace and hold his hamstring.

He was replaced by City team-mate Kyle Walker, with concerns even raised about the possibility of Stones missing the World Cup later this year if the injury is serious

However, in better news, Walker and Aymeric Laporte were spotted in training. The latter hasn’t featured at all this season as he has been recovering from a knee operation he underwent in the summer.

Laporte had returned to training prior to the international break but was not deemed fit enough to make the matchday squad against Wolverhampton Wanderers prior to the pause in the club season.

As for Walker, he featured twice for England over the break and there were no major concerns about his fitness ahead of the return to club football. However, the right-back last played for City on 3 September due to an injury he picked up in a 1-1 draw away to Aston Villa.

The only other injury concern for City is Kalvin Phillips, who Guardiola confirmed before the international break was likely to require surgery for a recurring shoulder injury.

It has subsequently been reported that the operation went ahead and was a success, but Phillips is not expected to be back for a few weeks at least.

City host United on Sunday in the first of 12 matches in the space of six weeks. The Blues face seven Premier League matches before the World Cup, will wrap up their Champions League group, and face Chelsea in the Carabao Cup.