Josko Gvardiol has admitted that the playing demands at Manchester City in the latter stages of the recent campaign saw him fall prey to an injury in pre-season.The 23-year-old was Manchester City’s...
Josko Gvardiol has admitted that the playing demands at Manchester City in the latter stages of the recent campaign saw him fall prey to an injury in pre-season.
The 23-year-old was Manchester City’s best player last term and proved to be Pep Guardiola’s most trusted confidante as the Blues endured their most difficult season in a decade in the backdrop of four consecutive Premier League title wins.
Gvardiol joined Manchester City from RB Leipzig in 2023 and despite being a natural centre-back, the Croatia international has operated out of position at left-back for an overwhelming majority of his first two seasons in England.
Guardiola is known to remember the players who help him get through difficult spells and Gvardiol consistently performed and kept himself fit over the course of Manchester City’s challenging 2024-25 campaign, drawing huge praise time and again from the Catalan coach.
City lacked the creative threat of Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden for large periods of the recent season and it was often Gvardiol who stepped up to alleviate the goalscoring burden on Erling Haaland, who despite City’s troubles still scored 35 goals in all competitions last term.
Gvardiol is still young but has established himself as one of Manchester City’s most important stars for the seasons to come, with the likes of John Stones, Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji expected to be moved on in the coming years.
The Croatian suffered an injury in pre-season that delayed his start to the 2025-26 season, wherein Manchester City suffered defeats against Tottenham and Brighton in their opening trio of Premier League fixtures.
However, it is worth remembering that Gvardiol played 55 times for Manchester City in all competitions last season and totalled 4,639 minutes – a tally that exceeds John Stones’ combined minutes (4,557) from the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.
Speaking to Nova TV this week whilst on international duty, Gvardiol assessed his fitness issues in the summer and provided context to the demands put on him at Manchester City in the last 12 months.
“I was out for a long time, struggling with a knee injury, but now everything is fine and under control,” he said, as relayed by Slobodna Dalmacija and translated by Sport Witness.
“I feel tired because I didn’t prepare properly and there are a lot of games, but I tried to bring as much as possible to the team.”
Gvardiol’s return to fitness in September has coincided with a turnaround in form for Manchester City, who have avoided defeat since August and risen up to fifth place in the Premier League table following a fine run of results ahead of the ongoing international break.
Category: General Sports
