Benjamin Mendy has been in good spirits at Manchester City's training ground as he steps up his recovery from his knee injury.
The left-back made just 15 appearances last season after successive knee injuries kept him out of the squad and was restricted to just one appearance, against Crystal Palace in the league in April, in the last 26 league games of the season.
But, he's gradually stepping up his recovery and has been in good spirits since returning to the City Football Academy earlier this month.
Mendy didn't travel on the club's tour of Asia as he worked alone trying to build up his strength and fitness ahead of returning to the first team set up. He was involved with the squad in Wednesday's training session, ahead of the trip to Bournemouth, for the first time since his injury.
The World Cup winner has been working hard in the gym at the CFA since he returned from his summer break and ensured to go and introduce himself to new signing Joao Cancelo on the day of his medical earlier this month.
Mendy's return to training suggests he is edging closer to a return to match action but he will face competition from Aleks Zinchenko for his position and Pep Guardiola suggested before the Spurs game that it may still be a while until fans see him back in action.
"What I want from Mendy is for him to be fit," Guardiola said. "To be available for training sessions every week. He’s had almost two years out and he needs to play. The first target is be fit rather than to play. To train regularly for a month then he has a chance to play."
