Pep Guardiola says injuries at this time of the season are extra painful because of the number of matches in a busy schedule.
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City’s squad has been hit by a number of setbacks on top of the long-term injuries suffered by Rodri and Oscar Bobb.
Ahead of our trip to face Aston Villa on Saturday at 12:30 (UK), the City boss revealed that Ruben Dias is set to be out for up to four weeks with a muscle injury.
Ederson could also miss the Villa clash along with Nathan Ake, but John Stones and Manuel Akanji are back in contention while Rico Lewis has served the suspension that ruled him out of the Manchester United game.
City have three games before the New Year and seven in January so to lose any player for any length of time is a significant blow.
“When you’re in September or October with international breaks, it’s not much,” Guardiola said. “And now in December, January, February, when you lose three weeks you lose seven/eight games and it’s a lot.
“Eddie has struggled with some niggles in his leg and doesn’t feel completely fine and he’s so important for the personality and everything. But he played five games in 14 days something like that, coming from an injury.
“We can’t replace because of injuries. It happened with Nathan, I don’t want to make Nathan play three games every three days, we didn’t have an alternative because John was injured and Manu was injured.
“That’s why I say when you have setback it’s there. You can rotate a little, but we can’t do that. That’s why I said survive try to get results, our mood will lift then our game will be better - accept the situation for what it is.
“That’s what I want to transmit to the team, don’t attempt for the big targets. We are in this position we’re in right now, we have to accept it and that we aren’t fine but we will be better.”
CHRISTMAS EVENTS AT ETIHAD AND ARNDALE
An option to boost the squad is potentially to go into the transfer market when the window opens in January.
City do not often bring in new faces at this time of year with Aymeric Laporte the most significant winter signing under Guardiola.
And the boss believes it can be a difficult time to do business with Clubs unwilling to sell and players needing time to make an impact.
“Winter is more difficult to do but we will see,” he said.
“I don’t know how may happened in the last few years, in the winter maybe with Laporte a few years ago.
“We are not a big fan of that but the circumstances this season are special and we have to see if we have to do something and it’s possible.
“If not we may have to wait until summer time thinking about how we finished the season, how the players finished and how they performed, knowing we have short holidays next summer and will see what we have to do.
“We will talk and see when the market is possible because maybe it will not be possible. We will see.”