Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola admitted that injury-prone midfielder Ilkay Gundogan had suffered another setback during their Carabao Cup triumph over Wolves on Tuesday night.
Ilkay Gundogan, whose career has been blighted with injuries at previous club Borussia Dortmund as well, was making his first start of the season against the Championship leaders.
The talented 26-year-old had struggled with back injuries during his time with Die Borussen and his tenure at City didn’t get off to the best of starts either as a knee injury kept him out of action for nine months.
Gundogan played the full 120 minutes at the Etihad Stadium but didn’t take part in the penalty shootout, which City won by a 3-1 margin thanks to keeper Claudio Bravo’s heroics.
Guardiola added that further tests will take place on Wednesday but the German midfielder is now a major doubt for their next game, a Premier League clash at West Bromwich Albion.
City, the only unbeaten side in the top-flight, are topping the Premier League with 25 points from nine games and are five clear of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur (both sides are level on points).
It was a frustrating outing for the Citizens, who despite starting forwards Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero together, were unable to score for the first time this season.
Aguero in particular, came close to opening the scoring but was unable to score what would have been a landmark goal. The Argentine hitman remains tied on 177 goals with Eric Brook at the top of the all-time goalscorers list but Guardiola asserted he would score goal No. 178 soon.
“Sooner or later he is going to score,” the City manager was quoted as saying by the club website.
“Relax, he is going to break the record… the situation is going to happen,” added Guardiola.