Rodri lasted a little over 20 minutes of Manchester City’s visit to Brentford before being forced off with another injury concern.
The once talismanic midfielder has seen his sheen of invincibility well and truly wiped away by last season’s ACL tear. Upon his return from an eight-month layoff, Rodri has been forced to manage various niggling setbacks.
Damage to his problematic knee at the Club World Cup had Pep Guardiola fearing the worse over the summer, but the manager’s on-pitch lieutenant only ended up missing the first Premier League game of the season. Rodri was then deemed fit enough to start three matches in the space of seven days. A curious decision which appears to have backfired.
The 29-year-old claimed he couldn’t feature against Burnley last weekend due to an excess of pain in his knee. Rodri was named in the starting XI for Sunday’s trip to Brentford only to sink to the turf clutching his hamstring after 20 minutes.
Guardiola had warned on the eve of the match that Rodri would not be back to his best until the 2026 World Cup next summer. “This season will be how we handle it, step by step,” City’s manager mused.
“It’s normal, it was one year on the massage table. The body changes, the rhythm changes. It’s a question of time.”
It takes the best part of year just for a player to just rebuild the strength in their knee and regain some semblance of match fitness after tearing an ACL. The subsequent 12 months are invariably plagued by muscular issues brought on by the shock of returning to the blood and thunder of first-team football on a regular basis.
Rodri appeared to be holding his right hamstring when he made his way off the pitch against Brentford but the real concern going forward will be another serious knee issue. Studies show that players who have suffered an ACL injury in the past have a “considerably increased risk” of sustaining a second problem of that same devastating nature.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rodri Suffers Injury Setback for Man City After Pep Guardiola Warning.
