Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola is uncertain whether Kevin De Bruyne will be fit to face Crystal Palace after confirming two more absentees.
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Man City travel to Crystal PalaceGuardiola uncertain over De BruyneRules out two other players for gameFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?
City travel to Selhurst Park on Saturday with an injury list approaching double figures. Ahead of that encounter, manager Guardiola confirmed that Phil Foden and Nathan Ake will be unavailable, Manuel Akanji could miss out, and De Bruyne – who starred in the 3-0 midweek win over Nottingham Forest – may not be fit, too. That led the Spaniard to admit "We don't have so many players" at present.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportWHAT PEP GUARDIOLA SAID
He told reporters on Friday: "He’s [Foden] not ready. Nathan [Ake] is out; Manu [Akanji] we’ll see."
On De Bruyne, he said: "We don’t have many players so we’ll see. [It took] a long time to come back. With a game every three days, we’ll see how he [De Bruyne] reacts to this amount of games."
THE BIGGER PICTURE
If De Bruyne and Akanji miss the Palace match, that means City will have eight players unavailable, including the injured Rodri, John Stones, Mateo Kovacic, Oscar Bobb, Foden and Ake. City are trying to defend their Premier League title but all these injuries are certainly not helping that effort.
GettyWHAT NEXT?
After Guardiola's team, who ended a run of seven games without a win in all competitions this week, take on lowly Palace in the Premier League, they return to Champions League action away to Juventus on Wednesday night.
