Manchester City have four quality central defenders in their ranks in part to cope with injuries or suspension to one or two.

Pep Guardiola learned the hard way when Vincent Kompany left, Aymeric Laporte got injured, John Stones' form fell off a cliff and he had to play Fernandinho and Nicolas Otamendi at centre-back. City lost the Premier League title that year and went out to buy Ruben Dias the following summer.

Since then, City have added Nathan Ake and Manu Akanji to increase competition and won the treble with four centre-backs in their back line. But this season, injuries have affected all four defenders and Guardiola has not been able to train with his full complement of centre-backs all campaign.

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As a result, Guardiola had to promote defender Jahmai Simpson-Pusey earlier this season, throwing the teenager into difficult situations like Sporting away in the Champions League, at Brighton in the Premier League, and off the bench against Feyenoord when City were 3-0 ahead (and then drew 3-3).

Simpson-Pusey started in the FA Cup third round clash against Salford last month, but then picked up an injury that stopped him from helping Guardiola's side through a tricky January fixture list. City went out and bought Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis for a combined £63m to boost their defensive options, with both playing a half each at Leyton Orient in the fourth round on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, Simpson-Pusey made his own return from injury, helping the under-21s to another win in the Premier League 2 over Blackburn to move three points ahead of Fulham at the top of the table having played a game more.

His return is just in time for City's UEFA Youth League knockout play-off at FC Midtjylland on Wednesday, with City looking to win a knockout game in the competition for the first time in seven seasons - they have lost in the last-16 for the last two seasons, and failed to get past the group stage four other times with no edition of the Youth League in 2019/20.

Alternatively, Guardiola could opt to recall Simpson-Pusey as cover given John Stones and Ruben Dias are both still returning to fitness and Nathan Ake seemingly remains injured. But that would be at the expense of playing him in the Youth League clash which takes place in Denmark the following day.

"We have an incredible amount of trust in Max [Alleyne] and Jahmai," said under-21 head coach Ben Wilkinson.

“I think you’ll go a long way to find two better centre-backs in the league than them two and as a coach I feel very confident that when you have those in the team that you’re going to get what you know you need with and without the ball.

“It was really nice having Jahmai back in the team and I think we’re a better team when we have him.”