Man City injury news and return dates as Blues handed triple boost after Haaland blow
Manchester City will hope to take a near-full squad to the FIFA Club World Cup as their injury list shortens towards the end of the campaign.
Manchester City could welcome back John Stones and Manuel Akanji before the end of the season, while Oscar Bobb is available for selection.
Pep Guardiola has seen Erling Haaland become the latest City player to suffer a bad injury in a season where almost every player has been affected by some form of fitness or injury issue. Haaland faces a race to be fit for the end of the domestic season with a possible FA Cup final falling at the higher end of his five to seven week timeframe from an ankle issue.
He joins Stones, Akanji, Nathan Ake and Rodri on the sidelines, while Guardiola named Oscar Bobb as an option to replace Haaland at number nine despite not making his first team comeback yet.
Akanji and Stones were given eight to ten week timeframes from the end of February, which would put potential returns at the end of this month, while Ake was ruled out for ten to 11 weeks at the start of March after surgery on his foot.
Guardiola confirmed that Akanji was progressing well and predicted everyone bar Ake is on track to feature before the end of the campaign. "He's getting better," Guardiola said of Akanji. "All of them I think, I don't know about Nathan, but all of them will come before the end of the season.
"But I don't know when. Manu is getting better. I think [end of] April, before April, maybe we'll be back. A long time they are out. Looking with John and Nathan, all three."
Savinho will be available for City's clash with Leicester after missing the Bournemouth trip following the birth of his first child. And Rodri is targeting a Club World Cup place despite warnings from Guardiola not to rush his recovery from injury and risk making it worse.
"I'm lucky that Josko was like a warrior. A real warrior," Guardiola said of his defensive injury crisis. "He has been all the time there. All the times in the beginning of the season. I cannot imagine what would happen without Josko. What they have done. That's why I just can be grateful and appreciate his focus to be ready all the time.
"Of course we had injuries in this period, we had a lot. Imagine without [Abdukodir] Khusanov and Vitor [Reis], we would have the last six, seven, eight weeks with just one central defender. With Ruben. So that is difficult to compete in that position."