Manchester City must thread careful with the fitness of Vincent Kompany, despite his return coming at the perfect time, insists Pep Guardiola.
“Of course, we have to take care of him, we are trying to do that,” Guardiola told a news conference. “He missed more than two-and-a-half months because he play against Gibraltar with a 9-0 scoreline.
“We have to be careful in terms of how many minutes, how he feels because he was out for two-months-and-a-half, and we miss him.
“It’s a risk to play him more and more, but now John Stones is out, we have a real, real problem in that position.”
City were without the suspended Nicolas Otamendi at the King Power Stadium and he will go straight back into the squad, but Kompany admits Stones will be a big loss for the side.
“Usually when I come back everyone’s looking forward for me coming back. On this time it was the first time I’ve come back into the team and I knew that the team was doing well and the pressure was on for me to perform and I enjoyed it,” the Belgian said. “I enjoyed every single moment of it. I just trust myself.
“Stones was one of the outstanding performers so far. If there’s one thing I can give him it’s that it’s something you have to go through in your career at times and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t come out stronger for it.
“Hopefully it’s not too bad and when he comes back — as was shown [at Leicester] really because we played with two centre-backs who didn’t really play in the last couple of months — we’ll need him back as much as we’ll need anyone otherwise we won’t achieve all these targets we have.”
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