Sergio Agüero will have a fitness test on Saturday morning to see if he can play in Manchester City’s game at home against Arsenal later in the day.
The club’s record goalscorer has not played since 22 June because of a serious knee injury. Agüero has trained promisingly in the past few days and Pep Guardiola is hopeful the 32-year-old will be in the team.
“We have training in the morning and we’ll decide if he’s fit,” the City manager said. “He’s trained well the last two or three days but we cannot forget he was four or five months out. But he’s near to start again, to handle the minutes, so we’ll see.”
If Agüero is available it will be a welcome boost because Gabriel Jesus, Guardiola’s other frontline No 9, is unfit, while Kevin De Bruyne is also ruled out. De Bruyne withdrew from Belgium’s squad this week and Guardiola suggested the midfielder may not recover from a muscle injury to face Porto in the Champions League on Wednesday or West Ham next weekend.
“I don’t know [exactly how long],” he said. “It’s not much but in the next games he’ll be out.”
Of Jesus, Guardiola said: “He has an injury in the part of his leg where if he injured it more he could be out for a long time. I don’t know if he’ll be back for the Champions League.”
There is, though, optimism about Raheem Sterling, who suffered a hamstring strain with England. “He trained much better in the last few days,” Guardiola said. “There were still some niggles [at first] but the last two or three days he feels better.”
