**Man City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted his team have “missed” Mateo Kovacic a lot this season.**
The former Chelsea player suffered complications from surgery he underwent last summer, and he has barely played as a result, but when asked about the Croatian earlier this week, Guardiola talked about what the midfielder brings to the table:
“I missed him a lot because his ability in short passes. I remember last season when we played without proper wingers, we played with a lot of players inside with Bernardo (Silva), Rodri, him.”
“This connection, these three, with Jeremy (Doku) or Phil (Foden) or whatever, that was magnificent how they had the ability to break this one against one, dribble the opponent, and attack the next line. And Kova (Kovacic), I already missed him a lot.”
When could Kovacic return to action?
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The 31-year-old recently [**shared a video**](https://mancitynews.com/man-city-injury-news-mateo-kovacic-donnarumma/) of himself doing gymwork and light training on the grass. However, Guardiola was keen to emphasise that there is still a way to go in his recovery:
“I spoke with him in the last days, and he said he feels really, really good comparing the first surgery and the second. Hopefully, he can help us in the last part of the season.”
Most expect Kovacic to be back sometime after the last international break in late March.
Kovacic’s minutes for Man City in 2024/25 and 2025/26 compared
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The Croatian international played 42 times in all competitions over the course of the 2024/25 campaign, which included 31 starts and 2834 minutes of game time in total.
This season, Kovacic has been limited to only 37 minutes. He came on for the last 4 minutes of the 2-0 home win over Everton back in mid-October, before making his last appearance off the bench during the 2-0 victory against Villarreal three days later.
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