Pep Guardiola has passed his judgement on Benjamin Mendy after he finally made his return to the Man City starting line-up in the 1-0 FA Cup semi-final victory against Brighton.
It was Mendy's first start in 146 days after several injury issues have cut his season drastically short.
He underwent knee surgery in November and has struggled to recover since, his only appearance since coming as a second half substitute in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg victory over Burton Albion.
The Frenchman made his long awaited return to training two weeks ago and it was perfect timing as Aleks Zinchenko picked up a hamstring injury in mid-week meaning City were short of fit left-backs.
Pep Guardiola faced a selection headache on whether to play Aymeric Laporte or Danilo out of position at left-back but instead Mendy was able to return and played 79 minutes as City emerged victorious at Wembley.
"It was a long long time he didn’t play one single game," Guardiola said on Mendy's performance.
"He is training just one or two weeks. We have a lot of problems in the defensive part, especially the full backs. So he started a bit like this, like that. But after he played confident and in the second half he played better."
City suffered yet another injury at full-back on Saturday as Kyle Walker was substituted at half-time with a hamstring problem.
Mendy may well have to be called on again when City play Tottenham in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday.
Man City handed double injury boost ahead of Champions League clash with Tottenham
