Manchester City's Brazil striker Jesus out for a month says Guardiola

MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Manchester City's Brazil international Gabriel Jesus will be sidelined for at least a month with a muscle injury, the Premier League club's manager Pep Guardiola said on Saturday.

City are now without both of their first team strikers with Argentine Sergio Aguero also injured and Guardiola has only has inexperienced teenage forwards to turn to.

“Gabriel was injured against Wolves (on Monday) so he will be one month out. It’s a muscular problem. We don’t have Sergio, we don’t have Gabriel," said the City coach.

“Of course, we have many options. We have Liam (Delap), Cole Palmer can play as a striker too. We'll see," added Guardiola, whose team visit Burnley in the League Cup fourth round on Wednesday and host Leicester City in the Premier League on Sunday.

In the past, Guardiola has played a 'false nine', with Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne used in that position.

City also have Bernardo Silva, Joao Cancelo and Oleksandr Zinchenko out until after the October international break, while Ilkay Guendogan is self-isolating after a positive Covid-19 test.

Defender Aymeric Laporte is a doubt after only just returning to training having also picked up the virus.

The Brazilian football federation had said on Friday that the injury meant Jesus would miss his country's World Cup qualifiers against Bolivia and Peru next month.

(Reporting by Simon Evans; Editing by Ken Ferris)