Manchester City will be without a fully fit Rodri for the opening part of the Premier League campaign.
After suffering a long-term knee injury at the start of last season, Rodri picked up another issue during the FIFA Club World Cup, which has turned out to be more serious than initially expected.
Rodri returned to training with the rest of Pep Guardiola’s squad last week, but the midfielder has only been doing individual work with the Premier League getting underway for the Manchester club in a week.
Man City are currently in Italy to play Palermo on Saturday night, and speaking to the press, Guardiola provided a bleak update on the fitness of Rodri.
A dejected Rodri during Manchester City v Al-Hilal at the FIFA Club World Cup.
Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
Rodri will not be fully fit for the start of the season
Man City open their Premier League campaign with a trip to Wolves next Saturday, which is followed by Tottenham and Brighton before the international break.
Guardiola has stated that Rodri will be able to play some part in these games, but the Spaniard will not be able to start a match until after the first international break of the season.
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“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,” Guardiola said about Rodri’s fitness via Manchester Evening News.
“Hopefully, in these games he can play some minutes, but what is important is that 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.”
This is a blow for Man City heading into the new season, especially with Mateo Kovacic also on the sidelines with a fitness issue of his own.
Guardiola does not have full faith in Nico Gonzalez, which means this is the perfect time for the legendary coach to begin his long-term plan for Nico O’Reilly.
Nico O'Reilly celebrates after scoring Manchester City's winning goal against Everton
Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images
Time to play Nico O’Reilly as a six
It was reported towards the end of last season that Guardiola’s long-term plan for O’Reilly was to convert the 20-year-old into a number six, despite the youngster being very effective higher up the pitch.
The current situation provides the legendary coach with the perfect opportunity to try this, as the pressure at the start of a season is less, while Rodri can be brought on for the last 20 minutes if things are not going entirely to plan.
The youngster would be wasted in the number six role, but if that is what Guardiola envisages for him, then the process needs to start at some point.
Shaun Wright-Phillips believes O’Reilly can be ‘phenomenal’ at Man City following his breakthrough year last season, and having just signed a new contract with the Manchester club, fans will be very interested to see how he kicks on over the next 12 months.