Man City reportedly face an anxious wait to determine the extent of Aymeric Laporte’s injury, but the expectation is that he’ll need surgery.
The defending Premier League champions saw influential captain Vincent Kompany leave this past summer to re-join former club Anderlecht.
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Having failed to replace him, Pep Guardiola essentially decided to place his faith in the options already at his disposal, but the Spanish tactician was running this exact risk with that plan.
According to The Mirror, Laporte has flown to Barcelona where he will have his knee assessed, but the suggestion is that he suffered ligament damage at the weekend which would require surgery and potentially result in ‘several months out’.
Naturally, Man City will be hoping for a positive diagnosis from Spain once Laporte’s knee has had further tests done on it, but Guardiola could be looking at another damaging long-term absence from his squad having already lost Leroy Sane this season.
In turn, with luck seemingly not on their side, it could be a major setback in terms of the Premier League title race as Man City are already two points adrift of title rivals Liverpool after four games, and with key individuals suffering injury blows, it certainly won’t help in their bid to keep up the pace at the top of the table.
There is some good news though as the Mirror suggest that John Stones should return from his own injury woes for the clash against Norwich City on September 14, but given how important Laporte has been to City and Guardiola, it will be far from ideal if he is forced to sit on the sidelines for a lengthy period of time.
