Manchester City have confirmed the extent of the injury that Josko Gvardiol (£6.1m) suffered in Sunday’s draw with Chelsea.
It’s a bad one: the left-back-cum-centre-half sustained a “tibial fracture to his right leg”.
Gvardiol will undergo surgery later this week, with an official return-to-play timeline yet to be provided.
We’re looking at months out, however. It could even be season over: teammate Oscar Bobb (£5.1m) suffered a fracture to his own leg at the beginning of 2024/25, and the return-to-training time was five months.
With Ruben Dias (£5.7m) also a concern after hobbling off in Gameweek 20, and with John Stones (£5.4m) out for “months”, it leaves City short at centre-back.
In the short term, Abdudokir Khusanov (£5.4m) and Nathan Ake (£5.3m) are the last men standing.
City have recalled youngster Max Alleyne from a successful loan spell at Watford in the meantime, while reports suggest they have entered the race to sign Marc Guehi (£5.3m).
Gvardiol’s lay-off means one less positional rival for Nico O’Reilly (£5.3m) at left-back, too; remember that the Croatian, more commonly used at centre-half in 2025/26, came on for O’Reilly in Gameweek 19.
O’Reilly’s other threat, Rayan Ait-Nouri (£5.7m), will return once his Africa Cup of Nations campaign is over, which will be either Gameweek 22 or 23.
