Pep suggests World Cup to blame for De Bruyne injury

Pep Guardiola has questioned whether post-World Cup fatigue was a factor in causing the knee injury that is set to keep Manchester City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne out of action until December.

De Bruyne has faced an intense 12 months, having been outstanding for City as they accrued 100 points to win last season’s Premier League title before helping Belgium to finish third in Russia.

He only returned to training at City on Monday of last week, playing for the final half-an-hour last Sunday as Guardiola’s side began their league season with a 2-0 victory at Arsenal.

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However, he then suffered a knee injury in training on Wednesday, and was spotted on crutches that night at the premiere of All Or Nothing, the Amazon Prime documentary that features extensive behind-the-scenes footage of last season’s title victory.

Guardiola expects De Bruyne to be fit again by the beginning of December, but acknowledges that City will have a tough task dealing with his absence, just as they did when a knee injury ruled out left-back Benjamin Mendy for virtually the whole of last season.

The City manager said: “We never know. My opinion is that when you ask a lot of the players, over more than 11 months, then after he comes back, this [injury] can happen.

“I don’t know the reason why. Nobody knows, but I’m pretty sure this can influence it. When you are fresh here, fresh on your legs, it doesn’t happen. Sometimes it can.

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“It’s part of the game for the players – it’s normal, they don’t rest. It’s a tough season, with short recovery times. They [the football authorities] say ‘let’s go’ and we are in the competition. Human beings have a limit and sometimes these things happen.

“My advice to him now is to rest, take the holidays he didn’t get in these two or three weeks, do it now. Then he’ll start training and we’ll be waiting for him with big arms.”

De Bruyne’s absence is set to give David Silva more opportunities to impress, with the Spain playmaker free to commit himself to club duties after announcing his international retirement on Monday.