There is plenty to get through in our latest injury news round-up, with 14 Premier League managers delivering their pre-match press conferences on a busy Friday.
Manchester City take on Norwich City in the Saturday evening kick-off and there was contrasting news from the two camps today.
Pep Guardiola confirmed that Aymeric Laporte (ankle) would be sidelined for five or six months but had better news on his other players who had been fitness concerns.
The City boss said of Ilkay Gundogan‘s illness:
Yeah, it was a stomach problem. He trained really good the last two days.
On Gabriel Jesus (hamstring), Guardiola said:
Yeah, he’s back too.
The champions’ head coach confirmed that John Stones (thigh) was also fit and said of Benjamin Mendy (knee):
Yeah he’s good. He’s training now. The last two, three weeks he’s trained regular with us and everything is going well. The knee is reacting well. So hopefully in the next games, can be start to be part with us.
After what happened the last two seasons, we want to be careful with him. We want to be sure when he is start to play because one issue is training sessions, another one is high competition.
Daniel Farke has struggled with injuries all seasons but the Canaries’ fitness issues reached almost farcical levels on Friday, with the Norwich boss revealing that he could well be without all four of his senior centre-halves and his first-choice right-back, among others, for the visit of the reigning champions.
Farke said:
Timm Klose doesn’t need surgery but it won’t reduce the time that he’s out that much. He will be out the whole season.
Christoph Zimmermann will be out until January. The ligaments in the ankle are OK but there was so much energy that the ligaments within the foot is damaged. It’s a complicated injury.
Grant Hanley is not available for the starting line-up tomorrow. He was out more than two weeks in team training. He returned today. He’s definitely not available for the starting line-up, hopefully at least an option for 20 or 30 minutes on the bench.
Tom Trybull is out, he damaged his ligaments in the West Ham game. He won’t come back before the next international break, he will be out at least six weeks.
We’ve got Moritz Leitner out, not available for tomorrow. He got hit on his calf in the West Ham game. There is still fluid on his calf and he wasn’t able to train the last two weeks.
Mario Vrancic not available for tomorrow. He overstretched his calf in training yesterday.
Max Aarons is out. Has to wear a boot. He has a chance to come back after the international break.
Ben Godfrey came back injured with a groin injury from the [England] under-21 game. Major doubt for tomorrow. He was today on the training pitch, we have a late decision with him if he’s available. Major doubt.
Tim Krul overstretched his elbow on our latest session. I would say a little doubt, I don’t expect him to be out.
Good news, Marco Stiepermann is available because he was out with a groin problem in the first week of the international break but at least he was able to train the last three days.
On top of the above issues, Onel Hernandez (knee) remains out and Patrick Roberts is ineligible to face his parent club.
If that lengthy injury list wasn’t encouragement enough for owners of Manchester City assets, Farke provided the following comments on whether he would set out to contain the Sky Blues:
My feeling is that if you just park the bus then you have no chance against them. If I’m honest, even if I would want to, I can’t park the bus because I have no defensive players any more.
While Manchester United’s problems are not quite as bad as Norwich’s, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has a number of issues heading into Saturday’s match against Leicester.
The Norwegian said:
We don’t really know who is going to be available. Maybe Aaron [Wan-Bissaka], maybe Jesse [Lingard] and I think maybe that’s it from the ones that had to pull out [of the internationals], but I can’t promise those two will be available either.
Pogba won’t be fit, no, unless he’s had a miraculous recovery overnight from yesterday to today or maybe from tonight to tomorrow. He’s not been ready to do 100 per cent training, no.
We hope, as I’ve said, more can be ready for West Ham next week and Paul [Pogba] and Anthony [Martial] are in that category. I think they’ll be ready for then and I can’t say more than that really.
Arsenal were dealt a major blow on Friday when Alexandre Lacazette was ruled out until October with a recurring ankle injury from which he hasn’t fully recovered.
However, Unai Emery had better news on Nicolas Pepe, who had pulled out of the Ivory Coast squad over the international break to concentrate on his fitness:
Yes, yes, he is training well and he is ready for Sunday.
Emery confirmed that Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira are ready after their fitness issues over the international break and provided updates on some of his returning defenders.
On Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin, Emery said:
They are now closer to us but they need to continue working and taking training with us for their fitness. They can feel very comfortable coming back to play with us, Kieran Tierney starting and Hector Bellerin come back after his injury.
Not yet [ready to return], because it depends on their progress for the next weeks and maybe also we can decide to play at the beginning with the under-23s before to be ready with us.
On Rob Holding, Emery added:
Rob Holding is in the same situation like Hector and Kieran Tierney, but he earned time and matches with the under-23s and we are going to decide if he can play with the under-23s, because the next week we are going to start in the Europa League, and after we are going to play the Carabao Cup. With more minutes with the under-23s, he can be closer to give us his performance.
At the moment, we were working with three centre-backs, thinking of Sunday, now four and Rob is now number five and Mavropanos is the sixth for us to think about them for Sunday.
Rob is training with us, he is playing with the under-23s in matches and he is very close to playing with us. But when, in each training, if he is going to play with the under-23s then that match is important for him to feel good, to feel comfortable, to feel confident. It’s a possibility that in the next week he could play with us.
Frank Lampard had some positive updates in his press conference on Friday, saying:
Rudiger is fit to play. Pedro is fine. Kovacic is fit to play, N’Golo [Kante] is not. He’s not fit yet. He still has issues with his ankle. This game comes too soon for him. Hopefully close [to coming back]. We’re waiting for improvement for that final step to get him where we want him to be, on the pitch, obviously. Hopefully, that will come in the next week or so.
Lampard also confirmed that Reece James and Callum Hudson-Odoi will feature for the under-23s tonight after their recoveries from injury but provided no update on Emerson Palmieri (hamstring).
Chelsea are this weekend up against Wolves, whose head coach Nuno Espirito Santo said that Romain Saiss is available for Saturday’s game and that Matt Doherty is in contention after knee surgery.
Willy Boly serves a one-match ban, however.
Jurgen Klopp didn’t report any fresh injury concerns in his presser but gave updates on two of his sidelined first-teamers, saying first of Alisson (calf):
He’s improving but we cannot put any pressure on it. It was a really serious injury in the calf and it’s now much better of course. We don’t know exactly. The target was always after the next international break but we don’t know.
Naby [Keita] is much closer than Ali. I think he could be in training when we come back from Napoli next week.
Liverpool take on Newcastle in the Saturday lunchtime kick-off, with the Magpies set to be without Sean Longstaff (ankle), Allan Saint-Maximin (hamstring), Andy Carroll (match fitness), Florian Lejeune (knee), DeAndre Yedlin (groin) and Dwight Gayle (calf).
Matt Ritchie (ankle), ruled out for two months before the international break, has made a remarkable recovery and has already returned to training but this match will come too soon for the Scotland international.
Across Merseyside, Marco Silva confirmed that there were no new injury concerns for Everton following the international break.
The Toffees’ opponents this weekend, Bournemouth, will again be without Arnaut Danjuma (foot), David Brooks (ankle), Lloyd Kelly (ankle), Dan Gosling (hip), Junior Stanislas (knee), Simon Francis (knee) and Charlie Daniels (knee).
Lewis Cook (knee) could feature this weekend but Eddie Howe said on Friday that the game against Everton “might come a bit too early” for the returning midfielder.
Adam Smith remains a significant doubt with a hamstring strain.
Roy Hodgson confirmed that Martin Kelly (muscle) and Connor Wickham (unknown) won’t be available for the trip to Spurs, while Scott Dann (hand) and James McArthur (unknown) are fitness doubts and will be assessed tomorrow morning.
Winston Reid (knee) and Michail Antonio (hamstring) are Manuel Pellegrini’s only definite absentees for the match against Aston Villa, who will be without James Chester (match fitness) and Jonathan Kodjia (cheekbone).
Matt Targett (hamstring) looks set to miss out too despite a return to training while Trezeguet is suspended.
Craig Cathcart (thigh) has joined Troy Deeney (knee) on the injury list at Watford, meanwhile, although will only miss a couple of weeks.
For a round-up of yesterday’s six press conferences, click here.
Predicted line-ups and more detailed information can be found in the Team News tab, which is being refreshed this afternoon.
You can view a video round-up or listen to the podcast summary of Gameweek 5’s press conferences below.
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