Guardiola suggests De Bruyne´s season could be over after Spurs injury

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola suggested Kevin De Bruyne could miss the rest of the season after suffering an injury in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Tottenham.

De Bruyne’s campaign has been ravaged by injuries, with successive knee ligament problems forcing him to miss most of the first half of the season.

The Belgian was also absent for the majority of March due to a thigh issue, before hitting a strong run of form upon his return, particularly standing out with three assists in Wednesday’s 4-3 Champions League win over Spurs – though that was not enough to send City into the semi-finals.

De Bruyne was bright again in the first half on Saturday, but he appeared to strain something around his left knee while taking a shot just before the break, and Guardiola suspects he could be forced to sit out the rest of 2018-19, including May’s FA Cup final showdown with Watford.

When asked about the severity of De Bruyne’s injury, Guardiola said: “I don’t know, but if he went out it’s because of something muscular.

“It’s normal after injuries and after these last three or four games playing a lot of minutes without preparation, because when they come back from injuries and train properly to be ready to take a game every three days and that’s what happens.

“It’s a pity, because now we arrive in the best moment of the season and we are going to miss him for these four days and maybe the FA Cup, but we’ll see tomorrow [Sunday].”

1-0 #MCITOT #mancity pic.twitter.com/mN36kTORY4

— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 20, 2019