Fabian Delph could miss up to seven games for Manchester City and the final two Euro 2016 qualifiers as fears grow he will be ruled out for at least three weeks with the hamstring injury the midfielder suffered in England’s victory over Switzerland on Tuesday evening.
Delph has yet to start a game for City since joining from Aston Villa in the summer, because of a hamstring injury suffered on the club’s summer tour. He has made two substitute appearances for Manuel Pellegrini’s side but the problem that occurred inside a minute of England’s 2-0 win at Wembley means Delph could be ruled out of the Champions League matches with Juventus and Borussia Mönchengladbach, a Capital One Cup tie against Sunderland, and the Premier League fixtures with Crystal Palace, West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United.
Delph’s availability for England’s games against Estonia and Lithuania, on 9 and 12 October, is also in doubt.
Sergio Agüero and Fernandinho will be available for Saturday’s trip to Palace after being involved in games in the US for Argentina and Brazil respectively that were played in the early hours of Wednesday morning UK time.
They are due to return to training with City on Thursday and Pellegrini can consider them for selection for a fixture City lost 2-1 last season.
Fernando, who is yet to feature this term because of a groin problem, is close to recovering. “I’m feeling much better and in a couple of days I will be stepping up my training programme,” the midfielder told mcfc.co.uk.
“I’ve had this problem for a long time. I originally picked up the injury a year ago and after every game I played, it felt sore and obviously much worse.
“I hoped I would return after the summer break and everything would be fine, but, during pre-season, the pain became gradually worse again.
“I went back to Porto for treatment, rest and to recover and now I’m feeling much better … I will resume normal training this week and hopefully be available at some point within the next fortnight. I can’t wait to get my season finally up and running and being pain free at last will be a huge relief.”
