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Manchester City face a major injury setback ahead of the Premier League season.
Pep Guardiola has confirmed that Rodri won’t be fit until after the September international break due to a groin injury sustained during the Club World Cup.
The midfielder has been doing individual training and missed the squad for a friendly in Palermo.
Guardiola hopes Rodri can feature against Wolves, Spurs, and Brighton but doesn’t expect his best form until after the international break.
For now, the focus is on protecting him rather than risking overexposure.
Rodri is one of four Manchester City players left behind to avoid fitness risks, alongside Phil Foden, Josko Gvardiol, and Claudio Echeverri.
Foden and Gvardiol aim to start against Wolves, while Echeverri’s future remains uncertain due to loan interest and squad registration limits.
Guardiola revealed that Foden has a knock but hasn’t ruled him out for the Wolves game, with a week to recover.
“Rodri is getting better but he had a big injury in the last game against Al Hilal. He has trained better in the last few days, hopefully after the international break is when he will be really fit,” the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager said.
“Hopefully in these games he can play some minutes but what is important is he doesn’t have pain because we don’t want this Rodri coming back injured.
“We try desperately to avoid that. He has been training the last two sessions with us and that’s good.
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