{"id":464851,"date":"2025-10-01T04:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T04:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/464851\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T04:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T04:34:14","slug":"manchester-citys-rodri-not-ready-to-play-three-games-a-week-pep-guardiola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/464851\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester City\u2019s Rodri \u2018not ready to play three games a week\u2019 \u2013 Pep Guardiola"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pep Guardiola does not believe Rodri is ready to compete three times a week as he attempts to return to top form.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and tore his meniscus last September but suffered a setback in his recovery this summer after featuring in all four of Manchester City\u2019s Club World Cup matches.<\/p>\n

He returned for City\u2019s second Premier League fixture against Spurs, but after Guardiola started him against Manchester United, Napoli and Arsenal in the space of seven days, the Spaniard had to sit out the 5-1 win over Burnley on Sunday<\/a> due to discomfort in his knee.<\/p>\n

Rodri played 75 minutes of the Manchester Derby, an hour against the Serie A champions Napoli, and the entirety of the match against Arsenal as City desperately tried to hold on to their 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n

Guardiola referenced the length spells out with ACL injuries for Real Madrid defender Dani Carvajal and Barcelona teenager Marc Bernal as a reason to get the pacing of Rodri\u2019s recovery right.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe feels much better than the game before Burnley,\u201d he said. \u201cDay by day to see how he feels and the day before Burnley he did not feel fine. Today he feels a little bit better. We will see tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is different to what happened in the (Club) World Cup. Now, he is not injured. In the tendon, he had difficulty. The week before was so demanding with Manchester United, Napoli, and especially Arsenal. Right now, if you want to know my feeling, he is not ready to play three games in a week at top, top level. The top intensity demanded by the opponents.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy feeling right now is that he is not ready because he needs time. This type of injury is minimum one year. That\u2019s wise. Be patient. He dictates. When he doesn\u2019t feel good, he is better to rest. Nico (Gonzalez) made an incredible game last game and is improving day by day. Kovacic will also be quite similar and play a little bit with all three. Tijjani (Reijnders) can play in that position so let\u2019s see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guardiola is confident that his squad will have the depth to challenge for the Champions League this season with Rayan Cherki, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Abdukodir Khusanov and Omar Marmoush all expected to return after this month\u2019s international break.<\/p>\n

Cherki is not ready to play but trained on Tuesday, which puts him on course to return ahead of what was an estimated two-month layoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Cherki) had a tough injury,\u201d said Guardiola. \u201cThere are injuries in the shoulder, hamstring, ankle twist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so risky because next time it is surgery, next time it is four or five months. I don\u2019t want to take a risk for that game next Sunday. Two weeks to fully recover, training alone, with the ideas, with the team, then he will be ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cRayan has a special quality in tight games in the final with the vision and final pass is difficult to find. That is why it is important to come back and not make a step back.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Photo: Dan Istitene\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola does not believe Rodri is ready to compete three times a week as he attempts to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,1614,393,4884,2465,886,104,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-464851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-champions-league","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-manchester-city","14":"tag-spain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115297049977456173","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}