Pep Guardiola delivers Manuel Akanji injury update ahead of Newcastle United clash

Manchester City will be without Manuel Akanji for their Premier League clash against Newcastle United, while Jack Grealish is doubt.

While the Magpies enjoyed a free midweek, Man City were in Champions League play-off action against Real Madrid on Tuesday night, losing 3-2 at the Etihad Stadium.

And their first-leg defeat was compounded by injuries to Grealish and Akanji in the first half.

Pep Guardiola delivers Man City injury update

Grealish played a key role in Erling Haaland’s opener but had to be replaced in the 30th minute. Akanji later went down holding his groin and didn’t re-emerge after half-time.

Speaking ahead of facing Newcastle, Guardiola confirmed Akanji would be out for the next eight to 10 weeks, and while Grealish’s issue is less serious, he is at risk of missing the Magpies’ visit.

“Surgery on Saturday. Eight to 10 weeks out,” Guardiola said on Akanji. “The effort he has done this season has been unbelievable because him and Nathan [Ake] have played in difficult conditions. At the end, the body said enough is enough.”

On Grealish, Guardiola added: “I don’t think tomorrow he will be ready. We will assess next hours.

Man City host Newcastle before travelling to Madrid for the second leg on Wednesday. They emain without Ballon d’Or winner Rodri, who is expected to miss the remainder of the campaign with an ACL injury. Oscar Bobb also remains sidelined having not yet featured this campaign.

Newcastle United injury list

Newcastle are set to have Anthony Gordon available after he missed the 3-2 FA Cup fourth round win at Birmingham City, while Dan Burn could feature at the Etihad Stadium, despite suffering with a groin issue last weekend.

However, Sven Botman won’t play as he recovers from a knee injury. The likes of Joelinton and Harvey Barnes remain absent.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference, head coach Eddie Howe said: "(Gordon) should be fine. He's trained this week, no problems. It was a thigh problem, but he responded well to treatment over the weekend, and he's trained.

"Good news on the scan that (Botman) had after the injury - we don't think there's any long term issue there. Short term, there's a still a bit of pain there for him, so we think he'll miss this weekend but hopefully won't be far away for the following games.

"The initial outlook on Dan wasn't positive, but he had a scan and the scan was good. He's improved a lot very quickly this week so he'll be very close this weekend."