Mendy’s knee injury worse than anticipated, says Manchester City boss

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola may be forced into the market for a new left-back in January after revealing Benjamin Mendy’s knee injury is worse than first thought.

Mendy injured his knee during City’s 5-0 rout of Crystal Palace at the weekend and flew to Barcelona to meet renowned specialist Dr. Ramon Cugat on Tuesday while City beat Shakhtar Donetsk 2-0 in their Champions League clash.

Initial tests conducted by City’s medical team came back inconclusive but now there is a genuine fear that Mendy could be sidelined for the rest of the season, which would be a huge blow for Guardiola’s side.

Mendy, who joined from Monaco in a deal worth around £55m, missed the start of the campaign with a thigh injury but has been a huge success on and off the field for City, quickly becoming a fan favourite at the Etihad.

His absence means Guardiola has no recognised left-back available after Gael Clichy and Alexander Kolarov were let go over the summer and the City manager has conceded he could be forced to sign another defender in January.

“I think it’s going to be a major set back,” BBC Sport quote Guardiola as saying after City’s win over Shakhtar. “We are going to see finally what he has.

“I don’t know [how long he is out for]. Wait until Thursday but I am pretty sure that it will unfortunately be a little bit longer than we expected or would like.

“We will see in January [about signing a replacement]. We thought next summer about looking for another left-back, another replacement, but we will see what we do.

“We have alternatives in our squad – Danilo, Fabian Delph, Fernandinho, can play there so we will see as we go along.”

Mendy has provided one assist in his five matches for City. In that time, Guardiola’s side have scored 22 goals and conceded only once.