Manchester City's preparations for their Premier League title defence have suffered a setback with four senior players unable to travel on their pre-season tour.
Pep Guardiola has the luxury of working with a fuller squad than usual this summer given that there are no major international fixtures or tournaments to take away his players. However, as the Mail reported on Friday night, Phil Foden, John Stones and Ilkay Gundogan are not on the plane that has taken the rest of the group to the United States for a week.
Those players will instead head off to train with the Under-23s before linking back up with the first team squad in the week leading up to the Community Shield against Liverpool at the end of July. Aymeric Laporte was also absent from the tour squad.
Meanwhile, Guardiola will oversee friendlies against Club America and Bayern Munich in the US as well as extensive training sessions before returning to Manchester.
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City are also expecting to lose Oleksandr Zinchenko sooner rather than later as Arsenal close in on a deal for the Ukrainian international. Zinchenko came off the bench to play a major role in City's comeback on the final day against Aston Villa, but wants to play more minutes and has been tempted by the prospect of linking back up with Mikel Arteta.
Arsenal have stepped up their efforts to sign Zinchenko after losing out on Ajax defender Lisandro Martinez and a deal is thought to be close with the Gunners indicating they are willing to meet City's valuation.
City squad for pre-season tour
Kyle Walker
Rúben Dias
Kalvin Phillips
Nathan Aké
Erling Haaland
Jack Grealish
Oleksandr Zinchenko
Rodrigo
Kevin De Bruyne
Stefan Ortega
Julian Alvarez
Bernardo Silva
Riyad Mahrez
João Cancelo
Ederson
Scott Carson
Liam Delap
Kayky
Luke Mbete
Cole Palmer
James McAtee
Josh Wilson-Esbrand
Oscar Bobb
Rico Lewis
Finley Burns
Ben Knight
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