Rodri made his long -awaited return to training on Friday, more than five months after having torn the knee cross ligament against Arsenal. The Spaniard was initially excluded for the rest of the season, but seeing him training has a great enthusiastic Fans of City and gave birth to the hope of seeing him come back to the field before the end of the season.
Guardiola insisted that City had to be careful not to precipitate Rodri's return to the action and risk a relapse of the injury. However, he admitted that there was a good chance that he played a role in the last first League of City games, or in the last phases of the FA Cup. City obtained its place in the quarterfinals after beating Plymouth Argyle.
Hardly rush
Guardiola said at a press conference:
“Fans should know that they are not the only ones excited. It's been five months, six months. But one step at a time, we don't have to make stupid decisions to come back for weeks earlier. It's good but it is still not about to come back, I would say. But he touches the ball today. He feels confident, he feels happier. I couldn't expect him to come back before the end of the season, not even the World Cup (clubs). But in the Premier League, it may happen. »»
Manchester City benefits from a rare seven -day break before his next Premier League match in Nottingham Forest after being eliminated from the Champions League by Real Madrid. Guardiola said that he would give players a little free time and that he was looking forward to doing a good job on the training field.
“It's new enough for us, it hasn't happened for eight or nine years. We will give ourselves a few days of rest, to refresh ourselves, because we think that in this competition, it is a question of quality and not of quantity. We are going to cool off, do full training sessions to prepare our really important match against Forest. Then we have a week before Brighton, then the international truce, then the FA Cup. We will cool off, train, accelerate the pace, refresh the things that we cannot do and that we have to do better ”, he explained.
