Fresh injury for boost for Man City ahead of Chelsea fixture with star returning

Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte has returned to training and will be assessed before the game against Chelsea on Thursday evening in the Premier League.

The Premier League champions will be looking to return to winning ways against Graham Potter and Chelsea after dropping further ground in the title race with a 1-1 draw against Everton last time out.

City can reduce the gap between first and second place to five points with a win in west London on Thursday evening.

In the next two weeks, Guardiola and his men face off twice against Chelsea, followed by games against Southampton, Tottenham and Manchester United.

Speaking ahead of the first of two clashes against Chelsea, the Manchester City boss ruled out Ruben Dias from Thursday’s visit to Stamford Bridge and added that a decision on Aymeric Laporte’s fitness will be taken later on Wednesday.

The defender missed the game against Everton due to a back problem but was part of team training ahead of the visit to Stamford Bridge.

Manchester City have had issues at the back with Ruben Dias also battling a hamstring injury he picked up while at the World Cup Qatar with Portugal.

Despite injuries at centre-back, Guardiola has been able to name three in his starting XI for each of their last three matches. Manu Akanji and Nathan Ake have played all three, while John Stones and Laporte have shared the other minutes.

City went against their original plan in the summer transfer market and signed Akanji from Dortmund after growing concerns about the physical condition of their centre-backs, and the manager has said since that he has had to make many changes because of the inability of his players to go every three days.