Man City injury fears eased on two players but questions remain over nine others

Manchester City weren't even training on Monday but managed to pick up more injury problems.

As City's bruised and beaten squad headed away for international duty, Pep Guardiola said the current break could be a good thing to reset and refresh. Then Monday started with Matheus Nunes becoming the latest name on the injury list, surprisingly withdrawing from Portugal duty, while Manu Akanji's subsequent return from Switzerland with an adductor problem wasn't a shock given Guardiola said he couldn't move in the build up to the Brighton defeat on Saturday.

Jeremy Doku was another to withdraw but he had missed the trip to Brighton with a muscular issue and 'couldn't run' according to his manager. And it was inevitable to see Jack Grealish's name among eight who left the England camp after Guardiola's high-profile criticism of Lee Carsley for calling-up the 'injured' winger.

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More concerning was Phil Foden's name on that list, taking City's injured or unavailable players on international duty to 11.

Ruben Dias, John Stones and Nathan Ake had already been left out of squads with injury concerns, while Rodri and Oscar Bobb are long-term absentees. Kevin De Bruyne had asked to be left out of Belgium's squad to manage his long-term fitness, making it 12 players not selected for their countries for fitness reasons.

That leaves just nine players away with their countries (Ederson, Stefan Ortega, Kyle Walker, Rico Lewis, Josko Gvardiol, Mateo Kovacic, Bernardo Silva, Savinho and Erling Haaland) while James McAtee is with England under-21s. Ilkay Gundogan has retired from Germany duty.

However, in a boost to City, MEN Sport understand the fresh issues with Nunes and Foden are simply fitness related, raising hopes the pair will not be out for too long. City host Tottenham on their return to domestic action before a Champions League clash with Feyenoord and a crunch trip to Anfield to take on leaders Liverpool.

Guardiola had previously said he hopes to have Stones and Dias back after the break while others could also return in time for Tottenham.