Manager “doesn’t know” when the midfielder will be ready to play again
Pep Guardiola has confirmed that Rodri will not feature in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie against Swansea City.
The club are being cautious as he continues to recover from a knee problem. Rodri has been sidelined since early October, when he was forced off during City’s 2-0 win over Brentford.
The Spain international has had partial training sessions in the last few days but is yet to rejoin full sessions.
“[Abdukodir Khusanov] is ready to play a few minutes tomorrow and Rodri is still not,” Guardiola said on Tuesday.
“He’s getting better, training with us partially. But, of course, after what happened two times with the muscular injuries we are going to see how he is this week.
“No, I don’t know when he will be available. Hopefully soon but not yet.”
Haaland is also recovering from a knock picked up against Aston Villa at the weekend, but even if fit it was always unlikely the striker would feature in a fourth-round league cup tie against Swansea.
“The Carabao Cup has always been like that,” Guardiola said. “The guys who take a lot of minutes, be ready to show me and show themselves they are completely recovered and ready mentally and the skills and everything to be ready to play.
“And some rest especially for the players who play a lot of minutes. Not just Erling, Ruben [Dias] and Josko [Gvardiol] and the other ones.”
