Pep Guardiola's Jack Grealish training ground exchange speaks volumes as England make fitness call

They're dropping like flies at Manchester City.

Manu Akanji and, out of nowhere, Matheus Nunes are the latest to withdraw from international duty with injuries. They join John Stones, Nathan Ake, Ruben Dias and Kevin De Bruyne in missing this week's action for a variety of fitness-related reasons. Rodri and Oscar Bobb are out long-term, and it would be no surprise to see Jack Grealish or Jeremy Doku follow suit.

If they both pull out, City will be in the unfamiliar position of having more players back in Manchester than away with their countries. Guardiola will welcome that to an extent, even if the new setbacks represent more bad news

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"I’m always pleased for players to go – when they are fit," the City boss said last week. "And when they haven’t struggled for the last one, two, three, four weeks. I’m more than satisfied for them to play. They love to play with their national teams."

Guardiola would never dream of asking his players not to represent their countries for competitive games. It's the friendlies that make him angry, or when a player is not fit and called up regardless. Guardiola said on Friday that Grealish was not fit for the weekend and appeared furious that the forward had been selected for England without the Three Lions consulting City. On Saturday, he described Grealish as 'injured'.

For balance, Lee Carsley told the media that England had asked City about Grealish and would assess his fitness on Monday when he reports to St George's Park. If he was to withdraw from the squad for fitness reasons, both managers can claim to be in the right after Guardiola's headline-grabbing verdict.

Those headlines came when Guardiola took apart Carsley's account with a series of other one-word answers or sharp responses. 'No', Grealish isn't fit for City. 'No', Carsley didn't talk to him about it. 'Yes', he's spoken to Grealish. 'Maybe' he will benefit from playing for England.

After fielding more questions on how Grealish's call-up came about and giving as little detail to each one, he ended the exchange by saying: "All I can say is that for a couple of days over two weeks he didn’t train but the people from England believe he can help. So go."

It felt like Guardiola was taking his frustration out on Carsley and England because he can and it won't upset any relationship he has with Grealish. But there was clearly a message to Grealish in there as well. "He has to be [motivated] – he has to be fit to play. Not only Jack – there are many players."

The final exchange on England went as followed: "Have you spoken to Grealish?" "Yes."

"What did he say?" "I want to go to the national team."

"Are you surprised by Jack saying he wants to go?" "No."

It felt as though Guardiola was sending a message to Grealish as much as he was to Carsley. Last week he said in an unrelated interview that 'the players who want to follow me, they will be there.' He asked players to play through the pain a week earlier and that prompted a number of senior names to rush back at Bournemouth.

Grealish is well within his rights to try and make himself available for England. He felt the pain this summer when dropped for the Euros and described it as the toughest moment in his career.

The decision will likely be taken out of his hands. But surely his best route to winning back his place for club and country is to get up to fitness as soon as possible and reclaim the left-wing spot at City.

Guardiola will be watching with interest.