9th March, 2018
Manchester City’s Fernandinho, Raheem Sterling and Fabian Delph are recovering well from their injuries and face fitness tests, manager Pep Guardiola said on Friday.
The Spaniard said the tests are to determine if they will be available for Monday’s English Premier League game at Stoke City.
Midfielder Fernandinho has not featured since injuring his hamstring in City’s 3-0 English League Cup final victory over Arsenal last month.
Forward Sterling is also coming back from a similar problem and last played in the league in the 5-1 win over Leicester.
Delph was suspended for three games after his dismissal in the 1-0 English FA Cup fifth round loss at Wigan Athletic last month.
He missed Wednesday’s 2-1 UEFA Champions League last 16 second leg defeat by Swiss side Basel with a muscle injury.
“Some of them are better. Fernandinho and Sterling are much better. Fabian Delph is like this, like that (uncertain),” Guardiola told reporters on Friday.
“We have training sessions to decide before the game. Today, the players are off, so I don’t exactly know the situation.”
Leaders Manchester City have 78 points with nine games left and need four wins to wrap up their first league title under Guardiola.
They also have a chance to become the first team to break the 100-points barrier in the history of the English top-flight.
“I know everyone wants to anticipate the situations, when we will win the title. The best example is two days ago, we lost against Basel,” said Guardiola.
His side reached the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals with a 5-2 aggregate victory over the Swiss club.
“Just be relaxed, be calm and focus on Stoke.”
Paul Lambert’s relegation-threatened Stoke City are 19th in the table with 27 points.
They suffered their heaviest defeat of the current campaign at the Etihad Stadium earlier this season when they were beaten 7-2 by Manchester City.