After rounding up Thursday’s nine press conferences in an article posted yesterday evening, we now turn our attention to the 11 remaining pressers that were held on Friday.
Pep Guardiola confirmed that Leroy Sane (knee) would be missing for up to seven months, with the German winger having limped off in the Community Shield last weekend.
Guardiola said:
Normally this kind of injury, six or seven months.
Hopefully in February or March, he can come back with us.
The city boss also ruled out Joao Cancelo (match fitness) but Aymeric Laporte and Riyad Mahrez look set to feature.
Cancelo’s arrival may affect Kyle Walker‘s security of starts at right-back, although Guardiola also sounded a warning about the new signing’s versatility:
I think for Kyle it’s important to have good competition. Both have to fight for the same position. Cancelo can play on the left as well.
Across Manchester, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer passed Paul Pogba (back) fit.
The Norwegian said:
Paul joined in, actually, the day after [the AC Milan match]. I wasn’t going to risk him, travelling down with the flight, but he joined in the game against Blackburn the day after, behind closed doors here. He is available.
All of the boys are fit. It was always our aim to get to the starting line with as many players as fit as possible. Of course, Eric’s injury is bad news but the rest of them are available.
On the subject of Mason Greenwood, Solskjaer added:
I believe that Mason’s going to be playing and involved a lot, and, when he is, he’ll score goals.
United face Chelsea this weekend, with Frank Lampard providing the following update:
We have Kante fit as in he’s fit – is he match-fit is a question I will have to decide. Willian is working to be fit, it’s probably come slightly too soon for him. Possibly Rudiger the same but he has been training with us for a few days.
A Spurs injury bulletin earlier today confirmed that Dele Alli (hamstring) is unavailable for the visit of Aston Villa and joins Ryan Sessegnon (hamstring), Son Heung-min (suspended) and Juan Foyth (suspended/injured) on the sidelines.
Ben Davies looks unlikely to feature having only just returned to training following a groin problem but Serge Aurier (hand), Victor Wanyama (knee) and Eric Dier (unspecified) are all back in training.
Arsenal issued their own medical update, stating Nicolas Pepe (match fitness), Alexandre Lacazette (ankle) and Mohamed Elneny (match fitness) would require a fitness test ahead of Sunday’s trip to Newcastle.
Emery said:
We are going to
start Sunday with players who I am very convinced can perform now at 100 per cent. For some, that’s impossible for them to achieve that performance for us because they arrived later or started training with us after injuries.Lacazette for example trained yesterday and today but I don’t know now about Sunday. Tomorrow we are going to check whether he can play or not. The same is with Pepe, he’s been working with us for one week.
New signing Kieran Tierney (groin) is out for four to six weeks but David Luiz has trained and could make his debut on Tyneside.
Andy Carroll (match fitness) won’t be ready to feature against the Gunners and is set to remain sidelined for at least two or three weeks, while Florian Lejeune (knee) and DeAndre Yedlin (groin) are long-term absentees.
Steve Bruce also reported “one or two little injuries” in Friday’s presser, which could include Matt Ritchie (hamstring).
Eddie Howe said of Bournemouth’s injury situation:
The long-termers are still out and obviously the fresh ones we have: David Brooks, Lloyd Kelly and Dan Gosling.
On Kelly, Howe added:
Hopefully it’s not long term and he’ll be back in weeks, not months.
Howe also passed Charlie Daniels and Steve Cook fit, saying:
I’d say they’re fully fit, I’d have no problem with playing either player. They’ve been out for a long period of time but have come back very, very good.
James Tomkins (groin), Mamadou Sakho (match fitness) and Jeffrey Schlupp (unspecified) will all miss Crystal Palace’s match against Everton but Roy Hodgson said the late-returning contingent from the Africa Cup of Nations – notably Wilfried Zaha – are all available for selection.
Zaha, indeed, will be considered for a start.
Fabian Delph (groin) will miss out for the Toffees but Leighton Baines (unspecified) has returned to training and a late decision will be made on his involvement.
Marco Silva said of new recruit Alex Iwobi, meanwhile:
The position we are looking to him is clear, coming from the left, he can play behind the striker really well. If you need to play him on the right he can do also, but we are looking for him coming from the left and behind the striker.
Brendan Rodgers didn’t report any significant fitness concerns in his pre-match press conference on Friday and said that Wilfred Ndidi will be in the squad this weekend, following a late return from the Africa Cup of Nations.
On new signing Dennis Praet, Rodgers said:
I felt that we had a lot of defensive midfield players. In terms of offensive midfielders we probably only had one of those, in Youri Tielemans. I always felt at the end of last season that we needed two.
Rodgers suggested that Praet may need some adjustment time, however.
Matt Doherty and Raul Jimenez returned from injury in the Europa League last night, leaving Morgan Gibbs-White (knock) as Wolves’ only reported injury concern.
Full team information and predicted line-ups are available via our Team News tab.
A video round-up can be viewed below:
