Pep Guardiola has confirmed that Manchester City will be without at least five players for the Premier League game with Chelsea.
Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus have been self-isolating since Christmas Day after returning positive Covid-19 tests and a further three players subsequently tested positive following the Newcastle game. The uncertainty and the severity of the situation caused the Premier League to call off the Everton match on December 28 but after further testing the training ground re-opened on Wednesday so that the Blues could prepare to face Chelsea.
City have not named the additional three players that have the illness but Guardiola did say that there will be five missing from the teamsheet as a result of coronavirus, with further test results on Friday and ahead of the Chelsea game determining if there will be any more absentees for the trip to Stamford Bridge.
"We have to respect the privacy of the players," he said. "On Sunday you will see the lineups and three [more] important players not there so you will know exactly but I'm not allowed to tell you.
"We have a good enough squad to go there and try to compete against a tough opponent and we are going there to play our game, we try to go and get a result and do a good performance."
Frank Lampard said ahead of the game that there have been two positive tests at Chelsea, but neither of those are in the playing squad.
