John Stones will be sidelined for a number of weeks in a fresh injury blow to Manchester City, Pep Guardiola has revealed.
Stones missed the Premier League opener at Burnley with a minor hip injury and wasn’t risked for the Super Cup win against Sevilla where he was an unused substitute.
City didn’t train between that game and the win over Newcastle, but Stones picked up a muscle injury and was not in the squad this weekend.
Now, Guardiola has confirmed that Stones will be unavailable for the next two games, and will potentially miss the September international break for England.
Speaking after Saturday’s win at the Etihad Stadium, Guardiola confirmed the latest injury blow.
“We have to come back, you know how the people come back because John (Stones) until after the international break will not be ready, and Kevin (De Bruyne) four or five months.”
Stones, who has already missed three matches, is set to be absent for upcoming Premier League games against Sheffield United and Fulham.
City are also missing Kevin De Bruyne for around five months, while Bernardo Silva has missed the last two games through illness.
There is good news on Bernardo, though, with the midfielder expected back in training this week.
“I think Bernardo maybe tomorrow [Sunday] is coming back,” Guardiola said. “We have one or two days rest now. So demanding since Arsenal, we are going to try and train our principles and our concepts that we want to do.”
