Pep Guardiola has confirmed that Manchester City are closing in on a double return for Savinho and Jeremy Doku, speaking after progression into the FA Cup fifth round.
Manchester City find themselves continuing to compete at the very summit of English and European football, eyeing a quartet of successes across competitions, but particularly in the Premier League.
Having been hit with numerous injuries throughout the course of the campaign to date, Guardiola has stressed the importance of players remaining fit in order to seriously compete for the biggest of prizes.
As such, with games continuing to mount and the magnitude of matches only increasing as the business end of the campaign arises, Manchester City will be needing their playing squad at its strongest.
And speaking to reporters after Manchester City’s 2-0 win over Salford City in the FA Cup fifth round, Pep Guardiola was quizzed on the recovery processes of both Jeremy Doku and Savinho following lengthy lay-offs through injury.
On the Belgian winger, Guardiola said, “He’s still close. Still he didn’t train with us, so we will see. But he’s a little bit better.”
“We played really good in the last games, but today [against Salford] in these type of games, we need wingers,” Guardiola continued, explaining the impact of a shortage of wingers in his side.
“We have just one with Antoine Semenyo and Antoine has a lot, a lot of minutes. So if you make quick shifts with Doku, with Semenyo, with Savio, the opponent defends in the 18-yard box for 90 minutes.
“And we didn’t have, and the shift was slow, and when we arrived there we could not drop them – that’s why everything was so difficult.”
Regarding the latest on Savinho, Guardiola revealed, “It’s an injury for six, eight weeks, that means two months – it’s a lot of time. Now he’s on the edge of six weeks. [He] Could play a few minutes [against Salford], but we didn’t want to take risk.
“Step by step. For example, training two days ago with us, it was, ‘WOW!’ He plays so good in the training. Yeah, wait. (So he’s close?) Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
Having qualified for the UEFA Champions League’s round of 16 automatically through a top-eight finish in the league phase, Manchester City have back-to-back free midweeks, enabling the club to hand their playing squad four days off before returning to training.
City next take on Newcastle United at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League, having already dismissed of the Magpies at home in the Carabao Cup semi-final to set-up a final clash against Arsenal at Wembley Stadium.
The next midweek break will then precede an away clash at Elland Road against Daniel Farke’s Leeds United, before March brings about the League Cup final against the Gunners, and the Champions League’s first knockout rounds for the club.