Man City suffer new injury blow as Pep Guardiola names two more doubts vs Sporting in Champions League

Ruben Dias will miss Manchester City's next two games after picking up a muscular issue, while John Stones is also a doubt for the Champions League trip to Sporting this week.

Stones and Dias were absent from the City squad at Bournemouth, with Guardiola cryptically saying pre-match that the pair would be out 'for a little bit of a long time'. That translates to after the international break for Dias, while Stones has a plantar fasciitis foot issue that kept him out of the Bournemouth trip.

Guardiola also opened up on the decision to bring back Kyle Walker after his own injury issues - a first appearance since the international break - while Nathan Ake played through the pain at the Vitality Stadium.

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Ake looked to be limping as he was replaced in the second half having gone off on the opposite side to the tunnel area, only adding to the ongoing injury problems at the Etihad.

Guardiola had welcomed back Walker, Jeremy Doku and Kevin De Bruyne ahead of schedule, although De Bruyne was not used at Bournemouth.

"We have players with rhythm. But we have other players with a lack of rhythm. Players come from injuries, but we knew it," Guardiola explained. "Ruben will be out until the international break. Manu [Akanji] and Nathan make an incredible effort to be there, Kyle as well has been 18 days without one training session with us and today was there. Rico [Lewis], a lot of minutes, he was tired.

"This is the position, we tried to handle [the squad] at Spurs the minutes to be fresh here. We couldn't handle it, they were another pace today."

The manager had challenged his players to play through the pain before this game, and opened up on the last-minute decision to start Ake at the home of his former club.

"Manu and Nathan were not in really good condition. Until the last moment I didn't know if Nathan could play," the manager said. "He said 'no, I want to try.' After 2-0 I decide to not put extra pressure on it, we need him for next Tuesday. There are seasons sometimes this kind of things happen more than others. We have to handle it, people come back. Sooner or later the team will be back."

Jack Grealish remains out, while Ake, Akanji and Stones will be assessed ahead of the Champions League trip to Sporting.