Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola, is hoping five of his key players, including Kevin De Bruyne, will recover in time from their small injuries and exhaustion ahead of the FA Cup final battle against Manchester United.
Guardiola made seven changes to his team in their 1-0 loss to Brentford on Sunday, mostly forced by injuries and exhaustion.
“We have four or five players with niggles, not big injuries, but they are injuries,” said Guardiola as quoted by amp.mancity.com
“The guys who didn’t play here were really, really exhausted the day before and mentally, they were completely drained.
“The guys who are in Manchester - Ruben didn't train for 10 days, Jack Grealish, as well.
“After the game against Brighton, Kevin felt the same feelings that he had before, weeks ago when he could not play a few games. It is what it is.
“It's not a big issue, I think they will be ready. They have to be ready for the training sessions and I am going to see them in three days and that's why today was so important to see these players and how they are.
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“Phil is in incredible form, Riyad as well, Cole was so active in many things.
“To play the finals we have to play the guys who feel better. Not because they played a lot of minutes.
“That’s why it was good to play with these guys and rest the other ones and hopefully the other ones can recover.
“The guys who played today deserved to and it’s important for me to see how they feel.
“And Nathan (returned) after being injured. Aymer (Laporte) came back again and played 90 minutes."
Rest and recovery will be key for Guardiola's men, with the all important UEFA Champions League final to follow after the Manchester Derby.
One player though, who hasn't had much rest, is Kyle Walker.
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“Unfortunately for Kyle I could not give him time to rest because we didn’t have many substitutions.
“But they needed to rest now, to arrive with the right energy and that is going to happen against United and after in the next game in the Champions League.
“Wednesday they will train and recover tomorrow. Hopefully (they will be OK), but right now, I don’t know.”
