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Manchester City hope Nathan Ake will be fit to return for the Club World Cup after undergoing surgery on his injured foot.
The operation was a success and the Dutch defender might be back before the end of the Premier League campaign.
But he is likely to miss much of the rest of their push to qualify for the Champions League and their FA Cup quarter-final against Bournemouth.
Ake came off at half-time in the fifth-round win over Plymouth on Saturday after aggravating a problem in his foot.
The 30-year-old has been limited to 10 top-flight starts in an injury-hit season and his absence leaves City with only one of their four senior centre-backs, with Ruben Dias fit but Manuel Akanji and John Stones both out until at least April.
But City spent more than £60m on two younger centre-backs in the January transfer window, in Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis, who could both be involved more now Ake is out.
“Now again we have central defenders out. I think we are going to miss Nathan,” Guardiola said last weekend.
“I’m so grateful and thankful to the club for bringing (January signings Abdukodir) Khusanov and Vitor (Reis), otherwise we would not have any chance to qualify for the Champions League next season or fight for the FA Cup – impossible. We would have just Ruben.
“That’s why it is a miracle they are here to help us, because it happened all season, with the problems we had and still we have.”
Meanwhile, the former Bristol City, Sunderland and Hibernian manager Lee Johnson is in talks to take over at Lommel, the Belgian club that is part of the City Football Group.
Johnson, who has also managed Oldham and Barnsley, left his last managerial position at Fleetwood in December 2023 but has been working with some of City’s young players this season and has long had admirers within CFG.
