Manchester City playmaker David Silva is a doubt for Sunday’s Premier League clash with leaders Liverpool after sustaining a muscular injury at the weekend, manager Pep Guardiola has said.
Silva has featured in all 11 of City’s league games so far this season and started in their 2-1 win over Southampton on Saturday but the 33-year-old was replaced by striker Gabriel Jesus just before halftime.
“David Silva was injured. Five minutes before the first half ended he told me he had a muscular problem,” Guardiola told reporters.
“When he has a muscular problem and cannot play more minutes it is because he has something and when it is a muscular problem it is always a minimum of 10-12 days.”
Guardiola’s team are six points behind Liverpool, who they face at Anfield on Nov. 10, four days after visiting Italy’s Atalanta in the Champions League.
Champions City were the only team Liverpool lost to in the top flight last season as the Merseyside club finished second by a single point.
Guardiola said it was too early in the campaign to view Sunday’s match as being decisive in terms of the title race. “Now we go to Italy and when we come back we go to Anfield. We will see,” he added. “Many things are going to happen and there are a lot of games to play.”
Elsewhere, Everton midfielder Andre Gomes will undergo surgery after suffering a fracture-dislocation to his right ankle in their Premier League match against Tottenham Hotspur, his club have said.
The Portugal international sustained the injury in the 1-1 draw at Goodison Park on Sunday after landing off balance at speed following a tackle from Spurs forward Son Heung-min.
Everton released a statement confirming Gomes would need surgery but did not set out a timeline for his return. Manager Marco Silva has backed the 26-year-old to make a full recovery. “We will give all support to Andre and his family,” Silva told reporters. “As a group, we have to stay together
“He is seriously injured but I am 100% sure Andre will become stronger as a football player and as a man because he is a fantastic lad, a fantastic professional.”
Son was shown a red card for his part in the incident and was in tears in the dressing room afterwards. Yesterday, the 27-year-old was called up to the South Korea squad for two matches later this month and national team coach Paulo Bento said his international teammates would rally around him.
“What happened in that match is really unfortunate,” Bento told Yonhap News Agency. “It doesn’t matter which country a player is from. You never want to see anyone get hurt that seriously, but it’s also part of the game.
“Heung-min has to pick things up and move forward, and we’ll try to help him the best we can.”
South Korea play Lebanon in a World Cup qualifier on Nov. 14 before facing Brazil in a friendly five days later in Abu Dhabi.
