Manchester City’s versatile defender will likely be out for the rest of the month

Manchester City’s versatile defender Manuel Akanji is likely out for the rest of the month. The defender went off injured in the first half of his side’s 5-nil win over Huddersfield Town. He was substituted after being on the receiving end of a crunching challenge from Huddersfield midfielder Alex Matos which forced the defender to be substituted.

Pep Guardiola provided an update on Akanji’s status in the embargoed section of his pre-game press conference. When asked about the status of the versatile defender Guardiola said: “Yeah, Manu Akanji as well is injured. Manu as well, yeah he had an action against Huddersfield, he’ll be some weeks out, few weeks.”

The Manchester City boss believes he could be back for his side’s FA Cup tie against Tottenham. He added: “Well, yeah, until the end of the month, yeah. I don’t know about the FA Cup against Spurs, or Burnley, if he’ll be ready. Now we are lucky that we don’t have games in the next 10 days, after tomorrow’s game against Newcastle, but we will see in Abu Dhabi with good weather how they feel.”

Manual Akanji will miss this weekend’s match against Newcastle United. The champions will have next weekend off as they head to Abu Dhabi for a midseason camp. The break will allow players like Akanji, John Stones and Erling Haaland time to recover from injury. The trio are the only players on City’s injury list currently.

The champions return to Premier League action on Saturday evening against Newcastle.