Man City boss Pep Guardiola fears Aymeric Laporte faces long spell on sidelines: 'I think it will be a while'

AFP/Getty Images

Pep Guardiola fears Aymeric Laporte faces an extended time out after suffering a knee injury in Manchester City’s 4-0 win against Brighton.

The centre-back was sent to hospital for tests after leaving the pitch on a stretcher in the first-half.

City’s medical staff are waiting for the final results, but fear the France defender has sustained serious damage.

Guardiola said: “It doesn’t look good. Tomorrow we will know.

“Now, exactly what he has I don’t know. The doctor is going to call me but I think it will be a while. Hopefully it is not as long as Leroy (Sane).”

In Pictures | Man City vs Brighton | 31/08/2019

1/17

Sane is sidelined until February at the earliest after damaging his ACL in the Community Shield.

Laporte was clearly in distress after hurting himself in a challenge with Adam Webster.

His right knee took the impact of the collision, with the 25-year-old failing to get back to his feet.

The defender had only just earned a call-up by Didier Deschamps after being overlooked by the World Cup winners despite his outstanding form for City.

Pep Guardiola praised his call up, saying: “For me he is the best left-sided central defender in Europe.

“I’m incredibly grateful to Deschamps. Hopefully he can play good and stay there for a long time. All of us are so happy for him because he was looking for this call for a long time.”

Fernandinho replaced Laporte in defence, with John Stones still recovering from a thigh injury that will keep him out until after the international break.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in