Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has confirmed that Sergio Aguero hasn’t travelled with the squad for their Champions League clash with Liverpool on Wednesday night.
The two sides meet at Anfield this week for the first leg of their quarter-final tie, with both sides naturally hoping to secure an advantage heading into the reverse fixture.
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However, City will have to do so without their top goalscorer this season, as noted in the tweet below, with Guardiola confirming that Aguero has been left in Manchester as he continues to recover from an injury which has kept him sidelined in recent weeks.
#PEP: @aguerosergiokun is in Manchester. He did not come. He was injured in the last two weeks.
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 3, 2018
Aguero has 30 goals in 37 appearances so far this season, which is a clear indication as to how important he has been for City in their pursuit of major honours.
In turn, Guardiola will undoubtedly be hoping that he can recover in time for the second leg, as although Gabriel Jesus is a quality alternative to slot in alongside other attacking threats such as Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling, having Aguero at his disposal will be a boost for the team as a whole.
From a Liverpool perspective, they’ll surely be breathing a huge sigh of relief, particularly given that they’ve got their own injury problems in defence.
Joel Matip was ruled out for the rest of the season on Tuesday, as noted by Sky Sports, and he joins Joe Gomez and Ragnar Klavan on the sidelines.
That in turn leaves Dejan Lovren and Virgil van Dijk as Jurgen Klopp’s only two options at centre-half, and so not having to face Aguero this week will be a significant boost for the Reds as they look to mastermind a way of taking a strong advantage to the Etihad next week.