Man City’s De Bruyne to face Tottenham after training absence for ‘personal issue’. Despite skipping a training session this week, Pep Guardiola has announced that Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne will play against Tottenham on Thursday.
De Bruyne missed Tuesday’s City practice because he had been given the day off for personal reasons in advance of Tottenham’s Premier League visit to the Etihad Stadium.
When a camera crew captured a portion of the practice, it was noticed that the Belgian midfielder was missing.
Yet City De Bruyne is expected to play for the champions in the critical match against Antonio Conte’s club, Pep Guardiola informed reporters on Wednesday.
He was unable to train due to a personal matter, but now he is back, according to Guardiola.
Ruben Dias and John Stones, two City center backs who have missed time with injuries, are also aiming to play against Tottenham, according to Guardiola.
Dias of Portugal hasn’t played since the World Cup because of a thigh ailment, and Stones of England has missed the last three games because of an unidentified fitness issue.
They’ve returned. Both of them had done incredibly well in their past two sessions of training. They are still alive, according to Guardiola.
“We will practice this afternoon to determine how to play and who will participate.”
After suffering a contentious 2-1 loss to their bitter rivals Manchester United on Saturday, City is looking to avenge that loss.
The manner of United’s game-changing equalizer, which Bruno Fernandes scored despite Marcus Rashford being offside and appearing to interfere with play in the buildup, sparked heated debates.
By scoring the winning goal seconds later, Rashford added insult to injury for City, who now trail leaders Arsenal by eight points.
Guardiola doesn’t want his team to feel sorry for themselves, thus he has no plans to linger on the disappointing outcome.
“It’s done, it’s finished. The focus is on Tottenham since we won’t be making any changes at this time. That was my message to the squad, I gave it to them in the changing room two minutes later,” he stated.
“We need to step up our game and take charge of the things we can. Big teams have to perform this. All that it is is the past.
Guardiola acknowledged that City had not been at their best lately, especially after the League Cup quarterfinal loss to Southampton and the United defeat.
“We have not been as fluid as we usually are. We struggled in the last two games because sometimes you need to have a nice build-up, send the ball inside to open and stretch the defensive lines.
