Pep Guardiola has explained why Brazil pair Ederson and Gabriel Jesus flew straight to Belgium after playing for their country on Thursday night.
The two Blues were initially expected back in the UK on Friday, and were ruled out of Saturday’s 2-0 win over Burnley as they would be back too late to be considered.
But it emerged that City decided to fly them directly to Belgium, where they will face Club Brugge in an important Champions League group game on Tuesday night.
Zack Steffen stood in for Ederson against the Clarets, but the number one is expected to return between the sticks in a game the Blues cannot afford to lose after going down to Paris Saint-Germain last time out.
That decision was based on the differing rules over Covid between the UK and Belgium.
Said Guardiola after the match: “They are in Belgium right now. I think they told me that they can play, they told me they can play but we will see in what condition they are.
“We have time to prepare the training session because we have to train here. They will not be here so I have to think about it.
“But we sent them there because the day after the game in Bruges they can come back and make a normal life.
“If they had come back here directly to Manchester they would have been isolated for ten days in a hotel and we didn’t want that and that is why they travelled to Belgium.”
The complication comes because it was their trip to Colombia, a UK red list country, on October 10, that would have forced them to quarantine on return to this country, rather than Thursday’s home game against Uruguay.
Belgium has different rules, not requiring a quarantine, and the players have been told they will be available to play.
Guardiola added: “Maybe they will be able to play and that is good news and after Brighton, the Carabao Cup and all the other games we have ahead of us they will be ready.”
