Erling Haaland is still out but Kevin De Bruyne is ready to start for Manchester City at Newcastle on Saturday, manager Pep Guardiola has said.
Striker Haaland is still troubled by the foot injury that has sidelined him since early December.
The Premier League champions, however, are boosted by De Bruyne’s progress after the playmaker’s return from a lengthy lay-off as a second-half substitute in last weekend’s FA Cup victory over Huddersfield.
City also expect midfielder Jack Grealish to be available after illness, but defender John Stones is not yet ready to return from an ankle injury.
City manager Guardiola said at a press conference: “Jack has been sick. Hopefully today he’s back. Erling is out and John is out.”
De Bruyne said last week he expected to be on the bench at Newcastle, but asked if he could start, Guardiola said: “Yes. What I saw yesterday he looks really good and dynamic.
“The minutes he played were really good, better than the training sessions before the Huddersfield game when he was a little bit not what he is.
“But that’s normal when you come from five months of injury. He had highs and lows in the training sessions, but that is completely normal. The important thing is he is getting better.”
City are third in the standings, five points behind leaders Liverpool, but Guardiola’s side have a game in hand, and the manager still believes they can win a fourth consecutive league title.
“Right now, yeah. How many points left? 18 or 19 games... so obviously mathematically possible,” the manager said.
“Is it realistic? At the moment, it’s far away so I don’t know. I will answer this question when we are six, seven games out.”
City hit a bad patch in November, and went four league games without a win, but are now back on track and have won their last two league games after returning victorious from the Club World Cup.
“We haven’t had time mentally to recover from winning the treble. I think the Club World Cup gave us an opportunity to find a spark.” Guardiola said.
“We’ve won two titles already this season.”
