Gundogan injury not serious, says Manchester City manager

Pep Guardiola says Ilkay Gundogan’s injury is not serious but the Manchester City midfielder will undergo a scan on his knee to discover the full damage.

Gundogan made his first start in more than nine months in City’s 2-1 win over West Brom in the League Cup on Wednesday night, but the midfielder was forced off just before the hour mark through injury.

Guardiola feared the worst when the 26-year-old immediately called for medical attention following a hard challenge from West Brom midfielder Claudio Yacob, but the City head coach is upbeat Gundogan has escaped serious harm.

The Germany international has spent the last nine months recovering from a serious knee injury and will undergo scans on Thursday to clarify the problem.

“I suffer for Gundogan when he was on the ground and making his and like this, at the moment, you think of the wrong situations,” Manchester Evening News quote Guardiola as saying after the match.

“You cannot imagine what it is like to be out for eight months, fighting every day alone with the physic and come back and to be injured, in that moment it’s so tough to accept that.

“It’s football and fortunately it’s not serious. I spoke with him. It’s okay. He had a little bit pain in his knee. We are going to see tomorrow, the doctor might clarify what he has."

Gundogan has only made 11 Premier League appearances for City since joining from Borussia Dortmund over 12 months ago, scoring three goals and providing one assist during that period.