Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City have enough in their squad to cover for Kyle Walker's departure.

Walker has asked to leave the club this month as he looks to move abroad for the final years of his career, and City are open to the departure as long as they get a fair deal. Despite the defensive issues that have plagued them all season, the Blues may not go back into the market to replace the veteran defender.

The manager praised the levels of Josko Gvardiol and Rico Lewis last week, while Nico O'Reilly impressed in the unfamiliar position of left-back in the 8-0 win over Salford City at the weekend. John Stones and Ruben Dias are nearing full fitness as the overall health of the squad gets better.

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City have also already agreed a fee for young centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov and are in talks with Palmeiras about signing Vitor Reis for the same position. Even if they would not directly succeed Walker, it would be more bodies to fill the defensive spots as Guardiola tries to get to a point where he can start having competition for the full-back positions.

The club put themselves in a similar position in January 2023, when they allowed Joao Cancelo to move on loan to Bayern Munich without replacing him despite it looking like they were short of numbers. Rico Lewis stepped up in his first season as a senior player, and Nathan Ake, Manu Akanji and John Stones all enjoyed games at full-back to help City to an historic Treble.