Kevin De Bruyne suffers serious knee injury in Man City training

Kevin De Bruyne has suffered a ‘serious knee injury’ in Manchester City training today and could face between two and four months on the sidelines.

The Belgium international enjoyed a brilliant campaign last season, scoring eight goals and setting up another 16 as City romped to Premier League success.

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City’s 2017-18 player of the season was seen on crutches after training on Wednesday and will be assessed by City’s medical staff tomorrow before seeing a specialist in Barcelona.

Man City have confirmed the injury to his right knee, saying in a brief statement that the extent of the problem “is not yet known”, but the club have deep concerns De Bruyne won’t be fit again until October at the earliest.

There are fears it is similar to the injury he sustained in his debut City season, when De Bruyne tore knee and ankle ligaments and was stretchered off the pitch during a League Cup win against Everton in January 2016.

On that occasion he went on to miss all of February and March before making his return in April.

The good news is that a far more serious cruciate ligament injury appears to have been ruled out, with early assessments suggesting he has injured his lateral ligament.

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A positive prognosis and two-month injury layoff would see De Bruyne only miss two Champions League group stage matches and put him in a race to be fit to face Liverpool at Anfield on October 7. He would miss league matches against Huddersfield, Wolves, Newcastle, Fulham, Cardiff and Brighton.

De Bruyne started Man City’s opener against Arsenal on the bench but he would have been expected to start Sunday’s match against Huddersfield.