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Pep Guardiola believes Kevin De Bruyne was pushed to the limit by the rapid change in Premier League seasons when the Manchester City manager urged football authorities to take steps to reduce the heavy workload on players.
De Bruyne will miss a Premier League visit to Arsenal this weekend after he returned from Belgium’s service with an unspecified blow, which also appears to rule him out for City’s Champions League opener against Porto next. week.
Guardiola was reluctant to set a deadline for De Bruyne’s recovery, but revealed that the fact that the playmaker had only eight days off between campaigns in the top flight, coupled with the lack of preseason, probably contributed to his injury.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to cause a backlog of matches, with City in action five times before the end of this month, and Guardiola has warned that “we will waste this incredible sport” if quantity is prioritized over quality.
While Project Big Picture’s proposals, which included four fewer games per season, were rejected, Guardiola hopes that Premier League bosses can find a way to minimize players’ ever-increasing commitments.
“Kevin said he had eight days after last season that was incredibly demanding,” Guardiola said. “Without preseason, eight days off, eight days off, he was with his family with his newborn, he has to be at home.
“He can’t go on vacation, rest, he trained here and played very well as always but in the end the boy has a limit and gets injured.
“It is too much. Hopefully we will follow the new ideas that the Premier League has, they will aim at quality and not quantity, if not, we will throw away this incredible sport.”
De Bruyne’s injury is not believed to be serious and Guardiola does not blame Belgium for the 29-year-old returning to the Northwest with an injury.
“I never complain about international matches,” Guardiola said. “I know how important it is for players to play for their countries, it is a privilege and they have to do it.”
Gabriel Jesús will also be absent for Saturday’s teatime game and will not risk his injury, but Guardiola offered a more optimistic assessment of fellow Brazilian forward Sergio Agüero.
The City’s record scorer has recently returned to training after knee surgery in June that saw him miss key games at the end of last season and the Argentine could be included in the team of the day to face Arsenal.
“He has trained well and we are happy, we need a striker, we play without them but he trains for three or four days, we are happy to see him back on the pitch after a long time,” Guardiola said.
City have won just once in three league games so far and are 14th in the embryonic standings, but could also have Raheem Sterling available to face Arsenal after the forward withdrew from the England team due to to injury.
“He trained much better in the last days, the days we came back there were still some inconveniences, but the last two or three days he feels better,” Guardiola said.
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