Pep Guardiola confirms Kevin De Bruyne ‘out for a while’ as Man City suffer huge injury blow
A hamstring injury picked up in the Champions League final in June kept De Bruyne out of City’s pre-season preparations, with the Belgian only returning to feature off the bench against Arsenal in the Community Shield a week ago.
Despite that, De Bruyne started and captained City against Burnley at Turf Moor, as Guardiola’s side made a strong start to their title defence with a comfortable 3-0 win.
Erling Haaland scored a brace and Rodri added a third, but De Bruyne managed just 23 minutes before he stopped off the ball and signalled to the bench that he needed to come off, with Mateo Kovacic introduced to replace him.
Guardiola confirmed after the match the Belgian is facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines, with the issue the same one that has hampered him over the summer.
“He is injured again unfortunately,” the City boss told Match of the Day.
“Same place and position as the Champions League and he will be out for a while.”
Ruben Dias and John Stones both missed out on the trip to Burnley, with Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji starting at centre-back and Josko Gvardiol making his debut off the bench.
Guardiola revealed that Stones had picked up an abductor injury while Dias was recovering from concussion.
“Ruben has a tough concussion and the protocol of the Premier League says you need seven days off and that’s why he’s not here today,” Guardiola explained.
