Pep Guardiola feared for Kevin de Bruyne after the Manchester City playmaker’s outstanding form last season left him ‘exhausted.’
The Belgian was City’s talisman in their record-breaking Premier League title triumph and then went on to inspire his country’s run to the World Cup semi finals.
Guardiola has admitted for the first time that he feared the worst when De Bruyne joined back up with his clubmates in the summer – and his concerns were justified with the 27-year-old suffering two knee ligament injuries, which have reduced him to just two starts all season.
“I think Kevin finished last season exhausted,” said the City manager. "It was so tough for him.
“He played a lot of minutes - a lot. And it was an incredible performance and after that he went to the World Cup and when he came back I had the feeling that he was a little bit tired still.
"Always when this happens it’s because the muscle is tired. Like with Kevin and (Benjamin) Mendy, they are more tired than usual. Normally, when you are strong you have full recovery and less tendency to be injured.
“When this happens it's because of an incredible amount of games season by season.”
De Bruyne is in contention to feature against Everton on Saturday after returning to full training this week.
In truth, City have coped well without their star – sitting just one point off league leaders Liverpool and qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League as group winners.
After losing in the Premier League for the first time this season, against Chelsea last weekend, the boost of De Bruyne’s return is perfectly timed. And Guardiola suggests his enforced absence could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
“Sometimes people recover quite well, sometimes mentally it takes time,” he said. “That’s why maybe, even though we don’t want him to be injured, but maybe it helped us.
“Now he’s fresh in his mind, he is recovered and now he tries again to avoid the injuries and play regularly and of course he is going to be important for us, he is a special player for us.
“I said it from the beginning when he got an injury the first time, and the second time, we are going to miss him.
“He has to recover his full condition. He has to compete with the players who have done incredibly good so far, but when you have more players we can rotate it more and we have competition between them, which is much better.
“Of course it’s good news when he is coming back.”
