Not for the first time this season, Kevin De Bruyne's timing was off.

Manchester City's vice-captain painted the picture of a club returning to normal when he came back from injury in time for their Champions League game with Feyenoord in November. They had lost their last five games by then, but as he finally came back from one of the most frustrating injuries of his career there really was a sense that Pep Guardiola's side were through the worst of their dip.

"I wouldn’t say dark," De Bruyne said, following his manager's call in refuting Bernardo Silva's description of the mood after their 4-1 defeat to Sporting. "I would say it has been a bit chaotic, I have seen so many people pass around the medical area, who is playing who is not, people who shouldn’t be playing but did with an injury, these games Sporting Brighton Bournemouth were all over the place.

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"Before Tottenham seemed alright and then we had a defeat. Yesterday was a bit quiet. Today I didn’t see too much change. Everyone is a bit down about the five losses but we have to take it and move on."

City looked to be doing exactly that the following night, until De Bruyne was one of three players brought on to defend a 3-0 lead in the final 15 minutes and the game ended 3-3. It was that performance that really set the alarm bells ringing for Guardiola, making City's crisis immediately more serious than had been expected.

The injuries did in fact get better for the next game - only four missed the Liverpool defeat - yet with eight missing for the Everton draw City's absences are now worse than ever. In the last 15 matches, there have been 83 instances of missing players; Rodri and Oscar Bobb account for 30 of those having missed every one, yet 13 others have missed at least one game and seven of those have come back only to be ruled out again.

Part of that is the result of taking too many gambles on the fitness of players, rushing them back before they were ready because there was nobody else. John Stones has only lasted 45 minutes on his last two starts before being sidelined again, while Ruben Dias rushed back to start five games in 21 days before falling down again.

These injuries have helped to suck the positives out of the team. Their only win in the last 13 matches, against Nottingham Forest, was more notable for losing both Akanji and Ake to injury with Guardiola visibly concerned after the match.

These are the sort of decisions that City and other teams take in every season, but usually reserve for exceptional circumstances much later in the season. In past years it has been reserved for gambling on Stones or Kyle Walker for a Champions League knockout tie with Real Madrid, not one of 38 Premier League matches away to Bournemouth in early November.

Then there are the hidden issues. De Bruyne has not missed a matchday squad since he returned on the South Coast, but seeing his lack of warm-up at Bournemouth made it clear he was still far from fully fit.

It took six matches before De Bruyne was able to start a match, and he has been on the bench for the last two with a virus. Three of City's back four at Bournemouth were injured, and while those willing to put their bodies on the line have earned Guardiola's appreciation and admiration it has been no surprise that their performances have been sub-standard and confidence and stability have drained out of individuals and the collective.

The same can be said for those that have stayed fit throughout and suffered for the lack of rest they should have had. It has been telling that Guardiola has gone out of his way to defend Silva, Rico Lewis, Josko Gvardiol and Erling Haaland during this period.

"It's really difficult," Akanji admitted after the Everton draw. "Everybody wants to stay fit, nobody wants to be injured but the most important thing is that players that are healthy need to stay healthy but it's not always that easy when you play so many matches a year and you don't really have time to recover.

"I have friends of mine [in other leagues] who are on holidays now recovering for the second part of the season - we don't have that. We need to try to find a way that these players playing now stay healthy so that we can get the other guys back and rotate a bit more and rest those that needs to rest."

Five bad results is now nearly 15 and the chaos shows no sign of ending at the Etihad any time despite the many attempts led by Guardiola to restore normality. The gambles will have to continue for City, and they will need a lot more to start paying off if they are to recover their players.