Soccer Football - Champions League - Manchester City Training - Etihad Campus, Manchester, Britain - December 10, 2024 Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola during training Action Images via Reuters/Jason Cairnduff
TURIN, Italy (Reuters) - Manchester City's Phil Foden and Mateo Kovacic returned to training on Tuesday, but manager Pep Guardiola said if the two feature at Juventus on Wednesday, it will be for only a few minutes, as City's injury troubles show little sign of abating.
City take on the Italian side in the Champions League and, sitting 17th in the table before this week's slate of games kicked off, Guardiola's struggling team have three games left to clinch a top-eight spot that would earn a last-16 place and avoid a playoff.
Foden is back training after missing two games with bronchitis while Kovacic has been absent since the last international break due to injury.
"I don't think so," Guardiola said about their potential return on Wednesday. "Maybe a few minutes for Kova, but I don't think so. But it's nice to have them back here to the team, to the training sessions, and, of course, travel with us."
Neither Nathan Ake nor Manuel Akanji are expected back from injury any time soon.
"Nathan will be longer than Manu but I don't know (how long)," Guardiola said of the central defensive duo. "It's the same (challenge with injuries) like we had in the last month, nothing changes."
City are mired in a run of poor performances, with just one victory in their last nine games across all competitions -- the worst stretch of results in Guardiola's mostly glittering managerial career.
The Catalan said the key to a return to top form is keeping things simple.
"What will save us is the way we play," Guardiola said. "We have to play so simple.
"And now we are a moment that we attack so quick, and we do a lot of things not in the right tempo that we lose the ball. We have to be so simple and basic to what we are as a team, and that confidence going back to the simple things, just have the ball and pass the ball, in the right foot, in the right tempo, the simple things do it better.
"And after that, you will get the confidence, because you cannot imagine how you regain the confidence when you make an extra thousand, million passes, and you are involved in the game, you are involved together. That helps us to be who we are."
City defender Ruben Dias said he and his teammates relish the challenge.
"Our way is to stick together, whatever people throw at us and whatever difficulties might come, because football is about that as much as life is, and of course it's not an easy period, and we're used to being in very different situations," Dias said.
"This is the time in which you show character, in which you show who you are. I've always believed that in the most difficult moments in life, you show your true colours, and this is one of them."
(Reporting by Lori Ewing in Manchester, England; Editing by Toby Davis)
