Two Manchester City Stars Absent from Training Ahead of Atletico Madrid Champions League Clash
Pep Guardiola was without two of Manchester City’s first-team squad, as the group put together their final preparations ahead of Tuesday night’s Champions League quarter-final first-leg tie against Atletico Madrid.
The Premier League leaders are looking to reach the Champions League semi-final stages for just the third time in their history, and potentially go one step further in the competition after falling at the final hurdle last season.
This time around, it is the reigning La Liga champions Atletico Madrid who stand in their way over a two-legged quarter-final affair in the Champions League, with the first portion of 90 minutes taking place at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night.
As Pep Guardiola and his squad put together their final preparations for the game, two members of the first-team set-up were absent from training at the City Football Academy on Monday afternoon.
This is according to the information of Simon Bajkowski of the Manchester Evening News, who reports that both Ruben Dias and teenage sensation Cole Palmer were absent from the group who took to the field in east Manchester.
However, in a huge boost to Pep Guardiola and his selection options in defence, a trio of John Stones, Aymeric Laporte, and Nathan Ake all trained as normal with the rest of the group at the City Football Academy.
The Manchester City manager continued, “Ruben (Dias) is on four now, first of March he was injured, it’s now four weeks later, I think we need two weeks more.”
Pep Guardiola has also offered an update on the relatively mysterious situation concerning the club’s rising youth product Cole Palmer, who has been absent from match action and the large majority of training sessions for a number of weeks.
The Catalan coach recently explained, “Two comebacks but still not clean in the process and painful. We have to take a decision. He did incredibly well [in the FA Cup] but since only trained for two or three days and then a few days off, back, few days off.”