Pep Guardiola suffers fresh injury nightmare blow ahead of Liverpool vs Man City

John Stones is a doubt for Manchester City's top-of-the-table Premier League clash with Liverpool this weekend after he sat out of training on Monday.

The England international was substituted at half-time of City's 4-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday night and is now an injury worry for his side's upcoming matches against Feyenoord and Liverpool. Stones was one of several absentees for the Etihad outfit on Monday afternoon as they were put through their paces at the City Football Academy ahead of Tuesday's clash against Arne Slot's former side.

But there was some good news for Pep Guardiola as, despite Stone's absence, he was able to welcome back Ruben Dias and Jeremey Doku to team training after they sat out of Saturday's defeat. City will make the trip to Anfield with the aim of bridging the eight-point gap between themselves and Liverpool, who continued their remarkable start to the new campaign with a come-from-behind victory against Southampton at the weekend.

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However, they will have to try and do that without Rodri, Oscar Bobb and Mateo Kovacic for the top-of-the-table encounter.

Speaking at his press conference on Monday, Guardiola admitted injuries have played a part in his side's run of five consecutive defeats in all competitions.

"They are still not ready because they were injured. Our main player for transitions, Rodri is not there," said the Manchester City boss. "We cannot survive because with four central defenders I put Manu or John there, with Ruben, Nathan and Josko behind. We would be strong but we don't have it.

"I have to play with Gundo, who is an attacking midfielder and our best guy for arriving into the box but I have to play him as a holding midfielder because the other holding midfielder - [Mateo] Kova[cic] is injured. And it has to be alongside Rico to give us a lot of passes and we have to adapt.

"It's not because they are soft or they don't want it or they are lazy. We had 26 shots on target and clear ones in front of the keeper - Vicario was exceptional.

"What we have to do is insist. 26 [shots] is not enough? Create more, and try to concede fewer. One day we're going to win a game and our mind will be clear. I hope Tuesday, if not Sunday. The desire is there and we are going to try."

Liverpool, meanwhile, will be without Alisson Becker, Diogo Jota and summer recruit Federico Chiesa when the reigning champions come to town, though they could welcome Trent Alexander-Arnold back into the fold after he missed Sunday's trip to Southampton with a muscle injury he sustained against Aston Villa before the international break.