Kevin De Bruyne could make a surprise return for Manchester City’s trip to Liverpool on Sunday, Pep Guardiola has said.
De Bruyne suffered a knee ligament injury in August that was expected to rule him out for two to three months.The Belgian returned to full training earlier this week, ahead of their Champions League tie in Hoffenheim.
“He made part of the training today,” Guardiola said on the 27-year-old. “He’s training with us, yeah.”
Asked whether De Bruyne was in contention to play, the City manager said: “We’ll see tomorrow.”
Guardiola also confirmed that Benjamin Mendy is back in training following a spell out on the sidelines and could return in Sunday’s meeting with Jurgen Klopp’s side.
“It’s a game of small margins,” said Vincent Kompany of the season’s standout fixture to date between Liverpool and Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday. If the teams are as closely matched in quality as Kompany thinks then he can only have been heartened by the weary look of many of Liverpool’s players as they struggled with Napoli’s intensity in their 1-0 defeat on Wednesday.
Jürgen Klopp’s midfielders create chances by harassing opponents out of possession and shuffling the ball forwards quickly but in Naples they looked heavy-legged. Liverpool’s past three fixtures read: Chelsea, Chelsea, Napoli; high-profile, energy-sapping games. City, meanwhile, have played Oxford, Brighton and Hoffenheim, and though they were made to work hard in Germany, they have not had to dig as deep as Liverpool’s players.
If they are not 100% fit, Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Gini Wijnaldum (Liverpool’s likely midfield starters if there is a lingering concern over Naby Keïta) do not have an awful lot of guile to lean on. Unless the Melwood ice-baths are particularly effective, Liverpool’s most pressing concern will be how to reach the supreme zesty levels that helped them defeat City three times last season