Manchester City midfielder
Kevin de Bruyne will be out for three months because of a knee injury.
The Belgium
international, a second-half substitute in Sunday's 2-0 victory over Arsenal,
suffered the injury in training on Wednesday.
City say De
Bruyne, 27, has a lateral collateral ligament lesion in his right knee, but
does not need surgery.
He missed 12 games
in 2016 after injuring the same knee during an EFL Cup semi-final victory over
Everton.
De Bruyne was
City's player of the season last term, scoring 12 goals and providing 21
assists as his side won the Premier League and EFL Cup.
He helped Belgium
finish third at the World Cup in July, the country's best ever finish at the
tournament.
"He will be a
big miss," said City boss Pep Guardiola, who advised the player to
"take the holiday he didn't get this summer".
"It is not
easy to replace Kevin," he said. "We are going to try and do our best
without him and try to be there by the time he returns."
De Bruyne is
likely to miss league games against Liverpool (7 October), Tottenham (28
October) and Manchester United (11 November), and the opening Champions League
group games.
No comments:
Post a Comment