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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted that John Stones’ latest injury concern “doesn’t look good”.
The 29-year-old has been plagued by injuries throughout the 2023/24 season, missing 12 games for both club and country due to a hip problem picked up in pre-season.
Stones’ fifth Premier League start of the campaign ended abruptly against former club Everton on Wednesday night, when he was forced to leave the field after colliding heavily with opposing forward Beto.
“It doesn’t look good, probably but we will see. It’s his ankle,” Guardiola told host broadcaster Amazon Prime after the game. “Hopefully the damage isn’t big and he can come back soon.”
Stones missed two months of action during the 2022/23 season with a hamstring injury and has never played more than 27 Premier League games for City in a single campaign, despite being at the club for almost eight years.
He has, however, become one of City’s most important players over the past year or so, demonstrating great versatility to step into a defensive midfield role that allows Guardiola to tweak the team’s formation when in possession.
Stones’ absence has been felt in recent draws with Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, while he also played just a minute against Crystal Palace prior to Christmas in another game that saw the champions drop points.
City were able to overcome Everton after losing Stones to injury at Goodison Park, fighting back from a goal down to win 3-1 thanks to strikes from Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva and a controversial penalty from Julian Alvarez.
“It was a massive win for us after where we came back from Saudi Arabia as world champions,” Guardiola said when asked about the significance of the result. “We were really pleased with how we reacted and it proved again how special this group of players is and the mentality that we have in our bones.
“We are really pleased for the victory except to concede a goal after we played really good. But the second half we increased our rhythm, played to the wingers and it was really really good.”
