Man City’s Rodri had ‘a lot of pain in knee’ – Guardiola

Sep 29, 2025, 05:42 AM ET

Pep Guardiola has confirmed midfielder Rodri missed Manchester City’s resounding 5-1 win over Burnley due to having pain in his knee.

The 2024 Ballon d’Or winner suffered an ACL tear in September 2024 in the 2-2 draw with Arsenal which ruled him out for almost the entire rest of the season.

He has since had further setbacks which saw him miss City’s 4-0 Premier League opening win over Wolves, while he played only 15 minutes in the 2-0 defeat to Tottenham.

Rodri missed the clash with Burnley due to pain in his knee. Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

The Spain midfielder appeared to be returning to full fitness after starting three games in a week against Manchester United, Napoli and Arsenal but Guardiola confirmed Rodri was not named in the squad for the romp of Burnley due to pain in his knee again.

“Rodri was training and said, ‘I’m not able to play. I have a lot of pain in my knee. I cannot play, I cannot play.’ And I said, ‘if you cannot play, you cannot play’,” Guardiola said.

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Nico González started in place of Rodri at the Etihad on Saturday, as City rose to seventh in the table thanks to two Maxime Estève own goals, an Erling Haaland brace and a goal from Matheus Nunes.

Rico Lewis covered the defensive midfield role in the 2-0 Carabao Cup win over Huddersfield.

City face Monaco in the Champions League on Wednesday and Guardiola could not say whether Rodri would be fit for the clash with the Ligue 1 side. “I don’t know yet, I don’t know [about Rodri’s fitness],” Guardiola said.

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