Pep Guardiola says Manchester City have an emergency ahead of the toughest month of the calendar.
The City manager is unlikely to be able to welcome back Phil Foden, Jack Grealish or Kevin De Bruyne into the starting XI at Aston Villa after their recent absences, with De Bruyne unlikely to make the squad at all. As well as having Ferran Torres also sidelined, there are fewer options in defence after Aymeric Laporte picked up a booking against West Ham that sees him ruled out of the trip to the Midlands.
John Stones could return to the side after being on the bench at the weekend with a virus, but there are a number of issues ahead of a run of nine games in 32 days for the Blues.
"We are in an emergency in the squad. We have few, few, few people. Ayme is out [suspended]," said Guardiola.
"We never complain when it is not possible for players to play for injuries or red cards, I trust a lot in the squad and other players come in but we are in real trouble for December - the toughest month of the year - because we have few few players. Kevin is back but he needs time to be fit.
"All the people who had Covid explain that they are drained and tired and need time, and Kevin is a player who needs to be fit otherwise he cannot show his top quality. Phil and Jack are still in the same situation.
"Maybe tomorrow they can play but not a lot of minutes. We are going to see after they train today with the doctors and physios. The rest, we have just 14, 15, players. We are in a difficult position because a lot of players play a lot of minutes. We will see what happens after training today."
