Pep Guardiola confirms doubts over £150m duo as key Man City star ruled out of Newcastle United clash

Pep Guardiola is awaiting news on the fitness of two key players as Manchester City prepare to host top four rivals Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon.

The reigning Premier League champions have endured a difficult season as they looked to claim the title for an unprecedented fourth consecutive season - but have shown signs of life by losing just one of their last seven league games. However, Guardiola’s side will head into their meeting with the Magpies on the back of an awkward trio of fixtures in all competitions after following up a 5-1 hammering at the hands of Arsenal with a narrow FA Cup fourth round win at League One club Leyton Orient. City were back in action in midweek as a late Jude Bellingham goal ensured Real Madrid collected a 3-2 win at the Etihad Stadium in the first leg of a Champions League play-off round fixture.

England winger Jack Grealish suffered an injury during the opening half-hour of that defeat and had been replaced by Phil Foden by the time the half-time whistle had been blown. Recent signing Nico Gonzalez, who joined City from Porto in a £50m deal last month, also remained on the bench after arriving at the Etihad Stadium with an injury. Guardiola has confirmed both players are doubts for the game with Newcastle and will be assessed ahead of the game before a final decision is made over their involvement.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference, the former Barcelona head coach said: "It's not as tough as what Manu [Akanji] has done but I don't know if tomorrow he will be ready. I don't think so, but we will see, we will assess in the next hours.” On Gonzalez, who many believe endured a challenging debut at Orient last weekend, Guardiola added: "It wasn't a difficult start, he was just injured. A difficult start is when you play bad, and that was not the case for the 20 minutes he played. But of course it was a setback; he had a little pain and for Madrid he was not fully, fully-fit. Day by day he's getting better, like I said before with Jack, we will assess in a few hours."

However, one City star that will definitely miss the clash with the Magpies is Swiss international Manuel Akanji after Guardiola confirmed the former Borussia Dortmund defender is set to be ruled out for around two months as he prepares to undergo surgery on an abductor injury suffered during the midweek loss to Real Madrid.

He said: “Surgery on Saturday, eight to 10 weeks out. Abductor (injury) I think so, broken. We wish the best recovery for Manuel because the effort that he has done this season has been unbelievable because him and Nathan [Ake] as well have played in difficult conditions, not being in top [form] and to help the team in emergencies in the position we had in a lack of players in that position. In the end the body said ‘enough is enough’.”

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