There was no room for Nathan Ake in Manchester City's squad to face Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final first leg. Ahead of their trip to Everton at the weekend it was a huge blow for Pep Guardiola's side, who are in imperious form.
It came as Arsenal wait tentatively to see if City can keep up their furious pace in all competitions. After beating Newcastle on Sunday, Mikel Arteta saw his side close the gap at the top to one point once more with City still holding a game in hand.
It looks increasingly like the reigning champions will have to do without Ake for a crucial point of the run-in, though, after he was ruled out of the game in Spain with a hamstring strain, going off at the weekend in the win against Leeds.
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"I didn't speak with the doctor but apparently if he asked to, you know... we will see in the next days," Guardiola said. He was evidently not fit enough to make the matchday group in Spain but outside of that there were no major points from the squad he chose to face off in the heavyweight clash.
Having been rested for the win over West Ham last week, Kevin De Bruyne returned to the team while Manuel Akanji slotted into the defence in Ake's place. Phil Foden kept up his improvements and was named on the bench, as were Aymeric Laporte and Serio Gomez, the other players likely to be standing in for Ake.
Unlike against Bayern Munich, where the Dutch international was injured for the first time and Laporte also went down with a knock, there were no such worries for Guardiola to contend with during this tie. It leaves City with a near fully-fit squad to face Everton on Sunday.
They will have the chance to restore a four-point cushion over Arsenal, who play later in the day.
In the final weeks of the season Arsenal are still waiting to see if William Saliba will be fit enough to play again. With just three games left and no expectation that he is fit to face Brighton at the weekend it means his games are running out. Elsewhere Takehiro Tomiyasu and Mohamed Elneny will be unavailable until next season, at least.
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