Pep Guardiola expects Phil Foden to go to the Club World Cup with Manchester City.
The midfielder was omitted by Thomas Tuchel from the England squad for the June internationals against Andorra and Senegal after saying he might want to sit games out to allow him time to recover from the ankle injury that has hampered him.
Foden has only started one of City’s last eight games after being hurt in a challenge by Manchester United midfielder Casemiro in early April and Tuchel described the 24-year-old as “a little bit injured” when discussing his omission.
But whereas Foden had suggested that he might benefit from a summer off and missing the Club World Cup, Guardiola expects him to be part of the City squad. “In principle, he will come to America,” he said.
Guardiola has said that former City captain Kyle Walker will not be part of his squad in the United States. The right-back has spent the second half of the season at AC Milan but his loan spell in Italy has ended.
But he is waiting to find out if James McAtee and Rico Lewis will play for City in the Club World Cup after England Under-21 manager Lee Carsley said he wanted to call them both up for the summer’s European Championships.
Guardiola joked that he did not know if City or the FA would pay their salaries in the summer months but added: “They are going to decide, the players with the club. They will talk with the sporting director and they have to decide what they want to do.”
City go to Fulham on Sunday needing a point to secure a top-five finish and Champions League football.
Rodri made his comeback after recovering from a cruciate ligament injury as a substitute in Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Bournemouth.
With Mateo Kovacic suspended following his red card in midweek, Guardiola has a vacancy in midfield but he insisted it is too soon for the Ballon d’Or winner to play 90 minutes. “He's not going to start, he's not ready to start,” he said.
Guardiola feels it will not be until next season that City see the best of Rodri and warned that even then he cannot have the same workload he used to.
“He's a long way to be what Rodri was,” he said. “I guess it will be next season when he will start to be the Rodri – and not in the way we have seen before the injury playing 70 games, playing every three days, I think it will take even longer for that.
“Because the experience in this surgery, we have always to be careful, otherwise you have muscular problems and this kind of stuff. But it is the first kind of step, for his mind, for his knee, but still is not the Rodri we know.”
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