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Manchester City’s injury problems have worsened after Nathan Ake was the last to suffer a setback on Wednesday night.
The versatile defender started as a central defender for the Netherlands in their friendly match with Spain in Amsterdam, but had to be withdrawn after six minutes.
He was photographed holding his right hamstring, which appears to be the cause of the injury.
Ake came to City last summer on a £ 40 million transfer from relegated Bournemouth and has looked impressive in his early performances. However, he has already suffered an injury after missing three games in October from what Pep Guardiola called “groin discomfort.”
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There is no indication yet as to how serious the new hamstring injury is and whether the 25-year-old will ever face on the sidelines, but the prospect of losing another player in the treatment room must be daunting for him. head of the Blues.
Due to the truncated nature of the season, matches are played in a much shorter time frame than usual and has led to a marked increase in muscle injuries throughout the Premier League.
Only a handful of City players have not missed at least one game through injury and that prompted Guardiola to ask for the rules on the number of substitutes to be increased after Sunday’s draw with Liverpool, a game in which Trent Alexander -Arnold suffered a calf. injury.
(Image: Dean Mouhtaropoulos / Getty Images)
Following the restart of play last season, teams were allowed to make five substitutes in matches to account for the match’s lack of fitness and increased risk of injury, but Premier League clubs voted in favor of that was reduced to the usual three for the current campaign.
Guardiola believes he should increase to five once again to protect the players.
“Today the right-back of the England team is injured, and other players. It is so demanding on the players, the same argument all the time,” Guardiola said.
“I don’t understand, I don’t know who is in charge of deciding these things but I don’t know how they don’t understand when all the leagues in the world except this one have five substitutions, to protect the players, to protect the footballers, to protect the physicality of play every three days.
“Maybe this league likes to be different. The situation is unusual, it’s different. That’s why it surprises me, I don’t understand and since I have a microphone and people ask me about this, I’m going to have the same theory. To take advantage, is to protect the players, today a right back of the national team is injured because of that and tomorrow it will be another player.
“I do not understand how three or five benefit, the show must continue, it is not to play or not to play, it is to protect the players. The previous season ended later, it was exceptional [circumstances] and all the leagues in the world understand the situation, except here.
“It’s ridiculous. LeBron James won the NBA title, I know he will be on vacation for a month, two months, three months, these guys had eight days to two weeks and then their games, games, games.”
“The pandemic is still here, every league in the world has five substitutes.”
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