In what will surely come as a bitter blow to Manchester City, Sergio Aguero has been ruled out for the rest of the Premier League campaign and is now a serious doubt for the remainder of the Champions League.
The Argentinian suffered a knee injury in the 5-0 win over Burnley and travelled to Barcelona for an assessment.
City manager, Pep Guardiola, confirmed that surgery will be required for the striker, cited by Sport.
“Tomorrow (Thursday) he’ll have surgery with Dr Cugat in Barcelona,” Guardiola confirmed.
“Once he finishes the surgery maybe we’ll know exactly the time when he can come back to join us and play with us.
“We don’t know right now (about the Champions League). After surgery, we’ll know exactly what the doctor sees and exactly what he has done. He will tell us more about the time to come back.”
Clearly, with the premier European tournament City’s main focus now, the loss of one of their main sources of goals could come back to haunt them.
Whether or not they play Real Madrid in the second leg of their Round of 16 game at the Etihad Stadium or in Lisbon is an irrelevance at this stage.
If City really do want to push for a longed-for Champions League, particularly if their two-year ban from the competition is upheld, they need all of their best players on the pitch, and there’s no doubt that the barrel-chested front man falls into that category.