GABRIEL JESUS AND John Stones missed the open-doors section of Manchester City’s Tuesday training session ahead of their trip to Schalke in the Champions League.
Striker Jesus and centre-back Stones played the entirety of Saturday’s 4-1 win at Newport County in the FA Cup but are reportedly suffering from hamstring and groin complaints respectively.
Stones featured in every match as City topped their group, with Jesus netting a hat-trick in the 6-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk.
The Brazilian striker has managed to score 16 goals in 33 appearances so far this term, despite largely serving as a backup striker behind Sergio Aguero, while Stones has been a vital cog in the City defence once again.
There was some good news for Pep Guardiola ahead of Wednesday’s match in Gelsenkirchen though, as club captain Vincent Kompany and left-back Benjamin Mendy trained for the second successive day following their latest spells on the sidelines.
Kompany has not featured since his troublesome calves flared up again during last month’s 2-1 win over Liverpool, while Mendy suffered swelling following his return from knee surgery against Burton Albion in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup.
City face Chelsea in the final of the latter competition at Wembley on Sunday, as they continue to chase an unprecedented quadruple.
Guardiola’s men are currently second in the Premier League and favourites to lift the Champions League for the first time in their history come May.
The start of 2019 has seen City recover from an inconsistent Christmas period, winning 11 of their 12 fixtures across all competitions.
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So we have 3 Pro14 games first, then the 2 Champions Cup game in January. Even if Sexton and Kelleher come good Farrel will more than likely have them for the Six Nations. And 10 or more others. Nice to have the Q final boxed off in the cup already and an 8point buffer in the league. Not too shabby so far. COYBIB.
@David: shame on me, turned out to be 17 others for the initial Farrel picks.
Real blow for Ronan with his rich form this short to 6 nations. But hopefully gets back up to these levels of consistency quickly. Hopefully a bit of game time for Ciara’s and Harry with Ross over the Christmas period will help them on.
I wouldn’t be surprised if his specialist was based on Lyon.
@Ken: already confirmed that he’s turned down the offer