Rodri could return to action for Manchester City sooner rather than later. The 28-year-old midfielder was expected to miss the remainder of the season after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament during a 2-2 draw with Arsenal in September.

However, Rodri appears to have made excellent progress on his road to a full recovery. At the end of last month, Pep Guardiola was asked if the Spain international could get back on the grass before the end of this campaign.

The Manchester City boss pointed out the severity of the injury, stating: "He’s positive but I don’t know to be honest. An ACL is an ACL. Always, I believe in long injuries, there’s a time you must respect because of the human body.

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"The ACL is the ACL for every football player and every athlete so there is a time. The first month he was in Madrid all the time for the surgery there, and then with the doctors and the physios. Now, it’s lovely to have him here in the locker room.

"His voice and his presence, of course it is important. When he wants to travel to special places, I said to all the injured players, of course you can come and it’s nice to have him. Of course, it’s good."

Guardiola added: "[The] Most important [thing] for Rodri now is to recover well. You’re not a teenager anymore, but still you have years to play. And it’s going to happen if you recover well. If you can back for one week, one month and [take a] step back for next season, it’s not intelligent.

"Of course, he’d love to play tomorrow - I know that. But the body is the body, and recovery needs its own time. It’s going really well and he feels really good, but step by step we will see."

Fast forward a week or so and, according to The Independent, Rodri has been registered in the Manchester City squad for the Champions League knockout phase. With teams only allowed to name three new players on their roster for the second-half of the season, Vitor Reis, who joined Guardiola's side from Palmeiras in January for £29m, was left out.

Meanwhile, the Premier League champions listed Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez and Abdukodir Khusanov in the list they gave to UEFA. At the start of the season Rodri set his sights on defending City's title as English champions.

At the PFA awards, as quoted the Mirror, the Spaniard sent Arsenal and Liverpool an ominous message. Rodri said: "It's the main character of this team, the hunger to win every year and go again. You never know but Arsenal have shown they have risen to the level until the limit and for us to push ourselves.

"Before it was Liverpool, now it is Arsenal. You never know but it seems these two teams will fight again. But we don't want to focus on them, we want to focus on ourselves and do even better than last season."

It remains to be seen whether or not Rodri will miss the remainder of the season. But, once the Ballon d'Or winner returns, he'll be determined to transform City's fortunes...