Latest: Aymeric Laporte could miss most of August for Manchester City
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola recently revealed that star defender Aymeric Laporte would be out of the highly anticipated Community Shield final after undergoing knee surgery.
English football’s top-flight returned with a blockbuster event staging Manchester City and Liverpool, arguably two of the most daunting teams across the soccer landscape at present.
Now, the Premier League champions are going to be without Laporte for some time, as he apparently played with a knee strain in their bid to retain the title last season. Since joining the club in 2017, the Spanish international amassed an impressive 33 appearances in the league, while also notching four goals.
Manchester City have refurbished their squad with the signings of Erling Haaland, Kalvin Phillips and Julian Alvarez, but have also overseen several departures.
As Guardiola addressed the media ahead of the match, he announced “Laporte is injured. He had knee surgery after last season, played the last two or three games with an important injury and made an incredible effort.”
The footballing mastermind further added “He had surgery, so far is doing really well but you have to be careful with a knee. I think through August he will be out; September I think maybe he will start to be with us.”
It’s a mighty blow for Manchester City, who now have three recognised centre-halves on their squad. One could expect Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake to protect the goal from the heart of the back line.
Besides the obvious setback caused by Laporte’s injury, City fans will have a lot to cheer for this season, as they aim to add to their tally of trophies under Guardiola, and a fifth PL title in six years.
Liverpool would ultimately win the Community Shield 3-1 over Manchester City as they received goals from Trent Alexander-Arnold (21), Mohamed Salah (83), and Darwin nunez (90+4). Julian Alvarez (70) tallied the only marker for City on the day.
-Akarshak Roy
Twitter: @RoyArkarshak
Photo: Lluis Fernandez Salas. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.