Pep Guardiola confirms double injury blow for Man City ahead of Liverpool clash

Ahead of their title clash with Liverpool next month, Pep Guardiola has gone and confirmed that the current Premier League champions will be without star signing Rodri, as well as Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Zinchenko suffered an injury during training and has since had surgery in Barcelona, which will keep him out for around four to six weeks. As a result of this, Zinchenko will miss two huge matches against Liverpool and Chelsea, as well as a Champions League fixture.

On the other hand, Rodri went off injured during the Champions League match against Atalanta on Tuesday, clutching his hamstring. Doctors have informed Guardiola that he should be fit to play after the international break, meaning he would be back in time for the Chelsea game, but he will surely miss the Liverpool match.

Whilst Guardiola has both John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi fit for the coming match against Aston Villa, they have had several injuries over the last few months that have kept them out of the team. Alongside that, with Aymeric Laporte's long-term injury at the start of the season, Fernandinho has had to fill in at centre-back on multiple occasions so far this season, and he could be set to player there once again on the weekend.

Guardiola was seemingly furious with Stones during the Atalanta game when Rodri got injured, as the English international did not have his shinpads ready to come on for the Spaniard, provoking a very nasty confrontation between Stones and the manager.