Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City boss, has confirmed that Jack Grealish has a suspected groin injury. This happened during Tuesday night’s FA Cup win at Luton Town. Now, he might not be fit for next weekend’s match at Anfield.
Grealish, who is 28 years old, was replaced by Jérémy Doku after 38 minutes in Tuesday’s 6-2 win at Kenilworth Road. This happened just two weeks after he had a similar problem against Copenhagen in Man City’s round-of-16 first-leg tie in Denmark, where he was also withdrawn early.
After the game, Guardiola gave an update on the England player. He said that Grealish seemed upset on the substitutes’ bench after being taken out of the game. He also said that Grealish “has to recover well” in order to help Manchester City try to win the Premier League and Champions League.
“I didn’t speak to doctors but I think he complained a bit about the groin,” said Guardiola. “Maybe a little bit similar. He felt really good but unfortunately was injured again at the beginning of the game. It’s been a tough season for him, has to recover well and help us when he’s able to come back.”
Grealish joined Manchester City from Aston Villa in 2021 for $126m (£100m/€117m). But he has only started seven out of 26 Premier League games for Guardiola this season because he has had a lot of injuries.
The latest setback could see him miss Manchester City’s match against Manchester United on Sunday and the game at Anfield on March 10, as Guardiola’s side enters a crunch period. If Guardiola can get the better of Jürgen Klopp, he could jump ahead of Liverpool in the Premier League table. Right now, only one point separates the two teams.
However, Grealish isn’t the only player racing to be fit for next weekend’s big game. Liverpool also has a long list of injured players: 13 first-team stars are currently out of action.
Mohamed Salah, Darwin Núñez, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alisson Becker all missed Sunday’s League Cup final victory over Chelsea. The latter duo are definitely expected to be sidelined until after the Manchester City clash.
Ryan Gravenberch is expected to miss at least the next two games after injuring his ligament at Wembley, which led to him being carried off the pitch within the first 30 minutes. Wataru Endō was also seen leaving the stadium in a protective boot after a tough 120 minutes at Wembley.
