Manchester City midfielder Rodri will miss the rest of the season with an ACL tear and meniscus damage, manager Pep Guardiola confirmed Friday.
Guardiola clarified the confusion surrounding Rodri’s injury, which ESPN first reported as season-ending before indicating more tests were required to solidify a prognosis.
“He had surgery this morning, ACL and some meniscus, we think,” Guardiola told reporters, including The Athletic’s Sam Lee. “Next season, he will be with us. This season is over. Unfortunately, we got the worst news, but that is what happened. We will be there to support him and move forward step by step.”
Rodri limped off the field in the 20th minute of Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal after falling to the ground with what appeared to be a non-contact injury. The 28-year-old was replaced by Mateo Kovacic, who could gain more minutes in the Spanish international’s absence.
Guardiola said he has already spoken to City’s director of football, Txiki Begiristain, about possible January signings.
BBC Sport highlighted Bayern Munich’s Leon Goretzka, Real Socediad’s Martin Zubimendi, and Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong as potential midseason recruitments.
Zubimendi turned down a summer transfer to Liverpool to stay at Real Sociedad.
“We will see,” Guardiola said. “We talked today with Txiki, we will see what’s going on. We don’t have to decide tomorrow, right? We have time to see the potential problems we will have, and after, we will see.”
Regarded as the best holding midfielder in the game, Rodri helped City clinch their fourth consecutive Premier League title in May before winning Euro 2024 with Spain as the tournament’s best player. He scored the winning goal for City in the 2023 Champions League final against Inter Milan and another nine times for the club in all competitions last season.
Guardiola admitted after City’s 2-1 win over Watford in the League Cup on Tuesday that Rodri is “irreplaceable.”
“When a team doesn’t play with the best midfielder in the world for a long, long time, of course, it is a big blow, but my duty is to find a solution so that we remain competitive as we have been for many years,” the Spaniard added.
City’s Premier League win rate without Rodri drops to 61.9% from 74.1% with him, according to Agence France-Presse.
Last season, City lost three of the four Premier League games they played without Rodri.
The former Atletico Madrid player had never previously suffered a significant ailment in his career and missed only eight games due to injury since the start of the 2019-20 season, according to transfermarkt.com.
