Kevin De Bruyne’s injury problems this season may turn out to be a blessing in disguise because they allowed him to recover from an exhausting 12 months, manager Pep Guardiola said on Friday.
De Bruyne has suffered two separate knee injuries since helping Belgium finish third in Russia and has played barely any part in City’s defence of their Premier League title, which took a hit last week with a defeat at Chelsea that knocked them off the top of the table.
The attacking midfielder has started only two games this season, neither in the league and Guardiola is wary of rushing him back into action, even though he is understood to be fit enough to be selected for the squad to face Everton on Saturday.
“Sometimes people recover quite well, sometimes mentally it takes time. We don’t want to be injured, but maybe this injury helped us,” said Guardiola.
“Now he’s fresh in his mind, he is recovered and now he tries again to avoid the injuries and play regularly. Of course he is going to be important for us. He is a special player for us.”
De Bruyne was outstanding as City became the first team in English top-flight history to record 100 points in a season in May, winning the club’s player of the year prize and narrowly losing out to Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah for national awards voted for by players and journalists.
De bruyne “is tired from last season” according to slaphead guardiola. pic.twitter.com/GuEWzUCXZg
— william jopson (@sonofnospoj) December 15, 2018
“I think Kevin finished last season exhausted, it was so tough for him. He played a lot of minutes and it was an incredible season’s performance,” said Guardiola.
“After that he went to the World Cup and when he came back I had the feeling that he was a little bit tired still.”