Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus has seemingly returned to training on the football pitch, according to his Instagram story, giving the club a much-needed boost.
Thanks in large part to the truncated nature of the season and a disruptive pre-season, City have been blighted by injuries in the opening few weeks of the campaign.
Fernandinho was the latest to suffer a setback as he hobbled off just 10 minutes after coming on in the Champions League victory over Porto on Wednesday, and looks set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
Pep Guardiola was light on options for the match with Jesus, Aymeric Laporte, Kevin De Bruyne, Benjamin Mendy and Nathan Ake all sidelined and he has only recently been able to welcome Sergio Aguero, Joao Cancelo, Ilkay Gundogan and Aleks Zinchenko back into the squad following their own ailments.
Thankfully, however, it appears that Jesus is on the right track to recovery as he posted a short video on his Instagram story on Thursday morning which showed him wearing football boots, accompanied with the caption: 'Finally, Pitch1.'
The Brazilian has only managed to make one appearance so far this season, which he scored in against Wolves, and has been sidelined since with a thigh injury.
Guardiola has been cautious about bringing Jesus back too soon and spoke of the importance of managing his fitness properly to avoid the risk of losing him for a period of 'months' but offered a more positive update ahead of the Porto game.
He explained: "Gabriel, Kevin and Aymeric are expected back in the next weeks. It depends on our performance and we will see what happens."
Benjamin Mendy is still set to be out of action for a slightly longer period along with Fernandinho, who is expected to be out for four to six weeks, though there is not yet an update on Ake's fitness who missed the match with niggles to his groin.
After the victory on Wednesday, Guardiola also confirmed that De Bruyne and Laporte were also expected back in training on Thursday, though he doesn't know if they will be fit for Saturday's trip to West Ham.
"I think Kevin and Laporte start training tomorrow but I don't know how they will be tomorrow and the next days so we will see," he said.
