John Stones’s Manchester City future will be reliant on the defender’s fitness, according to Pep Guardiola. The England international’s contract expires in the summer and the club must decide if he deserves an extension after an injury-hit spell at the Etihad Stadium.
The 31-year-old recently said he contemplated retirement last season due to fitness problems, which resulted in him making only 11 Premier League appearances and missing the final three months of the campaign with a hamstring injury. Stones was an unused substitute for City’s past two league matches but will hope to return to the starting lineup against former club Everton on Saturday, having featured twice for England during the international break.
“The club will decide what is best for John, we will see how he performs,” Guardiola said. “When John is fit, he is part of the group, the starting XI and the year of the treble [he] was unbelievable but since then he has not had the consistency in [number of] games. He’s been injured many times so that is why we have to wait and see.”
Guardiola has previously said he needs players who are capable of featuring three times a week, which was one reason behind Kevin De Bruyne being allowed to depart in the summer. Asked if Stones’ injury problems are behind him, Guardiola said: “I hope so. I’m happy that he’s back [with England] and the confidence from Thomas [Tuchel] to him. There’s no doubts about his potential and his quality. I’m happy he played with his country.”
Guardiola will be without Rodri on Saturday, the midfielder is sidelined after sustaining an injury at Brentford, but could have Rayan Aït-Nouri and Omar Marmoush available again. Stones will not face his former City teammate Jack Grealish, who is on loan at Everton and is unable to play against his parent club.
City possess the in-form Erling Haaland, who has scored 12 goals in nine games for his club this season. Would Guardiola be confident of finding a way to stop him? “Yeah, of course. Four central defenders,” he joked. “I had the pleasure to face him when he was in Dortmund and hopefully I’m not going to face him again the rest of my life.
“He’s a top-class player; in world football, there are four, five, six, 10 players that are unbelievable. They make a difference. Erling is one of them. I will have him, hopefully, for many years and I’m really pleased for that.”
