Man City: Manuel Akanji and Matheus Nunes withdraw from international duty with injury issues

Manchester City duo Manuel Akanji and Matheus Nunes have withdrawn from international duty due to injury concerns.

Pep Guardiola’s squad has been depleted by injury issues and City’s form has suffered as a result, with the team losing their last four matches in all competitions.

Ruben Dias and John Stones are among those to have missed the defeats to Bournemouth, Sporting and Brighton, and have been left out of their national squad’s for the upcoming break.

That list had also started to grow, with it announced on Monday that Akanji will not join up with the Switzerland squad for matches against Serbia and Spain.

Akanji was not involved in the trip to Brighton, with Guardiola revealing: “Manu said [on Friday], ‘I felt so bad in the training session and I could not move properly’, and against that team [Brighton] I prefer fresh people.”

Portugal, meanwhile, have confirmed that midfielder Nunes is not fit and has also been released from international duty.

Jack Grealish could follow his club team-mates in staying at City for the next fortnight, despite being called up to Lee Carsley’s final England squad. The interim Three Lions boss suggested Grealish has returned to training.

The winger has not played since the win over Wolves last month and Guardiola made it clear he was unhappy with Grealish being selected.

“National teams always play in this period and I’m always pleased for players to go – when they are fit and they haven’t struggled for the past one, two, three or four weeks,” Guardiola said last week.

“In 17 days he didn’t train once. Today was the first training and he trained for 20 minutes. That is the reality.

“Yes, he was in the gym for a few minutes for the past two days but it’s a question for the manager from the UK (England) – I’m not involved.”

Guardiola will hope to have key stars returning after the international break, when City face Tottenham and Liverpool in their first Premier League fixtures back.