Manchester Town midfielder Kevin De Bruyne will likely be sidelined for as much as 4 months doubtlessly as a result of a recurrence of his hamstring trauma, a plenty trifle away. to the group’s ambitions of conserving the Premier League and Champions League.

Town supervisor Pep Guardiola short a disheartened determine as he gave the analysis on De Bruyne on Tuesday and stated a call used to be but to be made about whether or not the Belgium captain calls for surgical operation.

An operation would hold him out for “three or four months,” Guardiola stated.

“I have to say, the injury for Kevin is a sore blow for us, so he’s a big loss,” Guardiola stated at a information convention forward of the UEFA Tremendous Cup towards Sevilla taking park in Greece on Wednesday.

“Kevin has specific qualities that you can lose for one game, two games, but for a long time is really, really tough for us.”

De Bruyne got here off with the hamstring trauma halfway in the course of the first half of of Town’s opening Premier League sport, a 3-0 win at Burnley on Friday.

It’s the identical infection that pressured the 32-year-old De Bruyne to be substituted right through the Champions League ultimate win towards Inter Milan in June.

He didn’t play games a unmarried modest of preseason and made his go back as a second-half replace within the Crowd Secure on Aug. 6, when Town misplaced to Arsenal in a penalty shootout.

De Bruyne used to be a miracle starter towards Burnley and captained his group. He lasted 23 mins at Turf Moor, the place reputedly out of not anything he signaled to the bench that he had felt one thing.

Requested if the trauma used to be all the way down to wicked success or De Bruyne returning too quickly, Guardiola spoke back again: “Give me 25 days of preparation, and he may not be injured.

“Earlier than I tug the verdict, I said to the medical doctors, the physios, with him, and he informed me, ‘I feel good, I feel good.’ So, I said, ’OK, it’s higher to begin later halftime [take him off]. However sadly it came about.”

De Bruyne looks set to miss City’s entire Champions League group stage and potentially December’s Club World Cup on top of domestic matters.

It could force City, which has seen Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez depart this offseason, into the transfer market. The team has been linked with a move for West Ham’s Brazil midfielder Lucas Paqueta.

In the meantime, Phil Foden looks primed to step up in De Bruyne’s attacking midfield role, even if they are two very different players.

“We can see,” Guardiola said. “Next what came about, we haven’t talked with Txiki [Begiristain, City’s sporting director].

The severity of De Bruyne’s trauma got here as a miracle to Town teammate Rodri.

“Well, I didn’t know it was that much, honestly,” he stated. “What can I say? I mean, he is one of the most important players of the club. For sure, we are going to miss him a lot. We are going to try to support him in this bad moment. No one wants injuries.

“I noticed him the alternative era, and he used to be certain, he desires to return again [quickly]. He’s an skilled participant. He is aware of he doesn’t need to run rapid to return again. He has to get well — that’s probably the most impressive phase.”

City will be playing for the first time in the Super Cup, a match between the winners of last season’s Champions League and Europa League being held this year at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus.

Sevilla will be playing in the Super Cup for the seventh time and has only won it once, back in 2006 against Barcelona.

Midfielder Fernando, a former City player, has been left out of the squad because of a virus. Defenders Marcao and Tanguy Nianzou were already missing.

Reporting by way of The Related Press.

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