Kevin De Bruyne will be unavailable for Wednesday’s Manchester derby, though Pep Guardiola is no closer to knowing whether the midfielder’s season is over.
De Bruyne suffered a hamstring injury in Manchester City’s 1-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend, with fears he could miss the remainder of the campaign.
The Belgian was always likely to miss Wednesday’s trip to Old Trafford to play Manchester United, but Guardiola confirmed his absence on Tuesday.
“I don’t know. We will see,” he said, when asked how long De Bruyne would be out for. “It is a muscular problem and we will see in the next days but tomorrow is not available.”
De Bruyne, City’s player of the year last season, missed much of the first half of the current campaign after suffering two separate knee ligament injuries.
Guardiola believes that the 27-year-old must now pay close attention to his fitness to prevent further problems down the line.
“Yeah, unfortunately it was one injury, another one, another one. Muscular problems, he had two or three,” he said.
“In England you don’t have time to make a preparation. You play every three days that is not the best way. You have to make a good pre-season.
“Now he has to pay attention, the little details, see if he can play one or two more games this season and next season make a good pre-season.
“He has a lovely family and is incredibly well organised, family, training session, rest. We are going to speak with him to be safe, to be fit. That is what I am going to try and do.”
