Pep Guardiola admits Man City stars taking part in via ache amid troubling harm disaster

Pep Guardiola is expecting no sympathy from rivals because of his mounting injury crisis at Manchester City.

The English champions have seen their squad decimated in recent weeks. Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne, Kyle Walker, Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku and Oscar Bobb are all sidelined.

While to make matters worse, Savinho, Manuel Akanji, Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias are all doubtful for Saturday’s trip to Bournemouth. Guardiola admits he will have to call up some academy players to plug the holes, and could sign some players in the January transfer window if the situation doesn’t improve.

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In the meantime, he doesn’t expect people to feel sorry for him – and doesn’t want them to. “I have many (injury) doubts,” he said. “(Sympathy?) Are you sure? It is what it is, at many clubs this happens.

“We are not the only club with injuries. I’ve said many times, don’t feel sorry for ourselves. The challenge is that. We’ll play with 11 players. I remember in the past, one, two, three years, Liverpool had a lot of injuries and they struggle. It is what it is, we have to adapt and focus.

“We know the situation, but what can we do? Recover as quick as possible. We will use (academy players) because we’re in an emergency in certain positions. Some of them we trust, like in the past. That’s why the academy is there. We don’t have another option.”

Guardiola admits some of his stars will have to play through the pain barrier, in a bid to keep City top of the Premier League table. He added: “They are used to playing with some pain. It can be niggles, or it can be dangerous, but apart of that, when it happens, today almost all of the players play with pain.

“There are moments when injuries are injuries and you have be careful, but sometimes if you have problems you have to play. Rafa Nadal played all of his career with pain. He played. And won I don’t know how many Grand Slams.

“You have to deal with it in modern football, or you can’t sustain games every three days at a top club. We will adapt (against Bournemouth) and in the next games. We have an incredible group of players with a strong mentality in those tough moments.

“This week is so important before the international break. The away games and then in the Champions League. There are players who say, ‘OK, I’m ready”, and there are players who have more tendency to get niggles with their history.

“It’s human nature. There are the others who just go, go go, that it doesn’t matter what happens. It’s not because they are more or less (focused). It’s that they can adapt to sustain incredible amounts of efforts every day, more than the other ones.”