Ake picked up a hamstring injury during their draw with Bayern in the UCL last week and didn’t recover for the Arsenal game
By Kehinde Okeowo
Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola has said Dutch defender, Nathan Ake could not recover on time for the visit of league leaders, Arsenal on Wednesday night.
Ake picked up a hamstring problem during their 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) second-leg tie last week.
The Netherlands international will now miss the top-of-the-table clash at the Etihad and probably the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid.
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Speaking ahead of the crucial Arsenal clash Guardiola told reporters: “Nathan Aké won’t be available vs Arsenal. Hopefully, he can come back soon.
“Back vs Real Madrid? I don’t know… We will find the right player to do it.
“I don’t have doubts. We’ll play with 11,”
Meanwhile, Arsenal boss, Mikel Arteta has also confirmed that William Saliba will be out of tonight’s clash against Manchester City with Granit Xhaka a doubt.
Arteta made this known, when asked about Saliba’s potential availability and the injury situation in his camp ahead of the title-deciding clash with Man City.
He said, “There’s not been a real improvement unfortunately on him (Saliba),” the manager explained. “So we are still waiting. We are still hopeful but obviously, it is another week that has gone by and he hasn’t been able to train with the team.
“I’ll leave that to the doctors to explain if they have to explain. At the moment, we don’t have him. We are preparing for this game without him and next game [against Chelsea] obviously probably is going to come too close as well so we have to go week-by-week at the moment”
On Xhaka, he added: “Granit has been out. Hopefully, he’ll be able to train today but he’s still a doubt,”
