Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has revealed the extremely limited preparation that preceded Kyle Walker’s start against Bournemouth.
The 33-year-old was named in the Premier League champions’ starting line-up for the first time in several weeks having sustained a knee issue during the October international break and duties with England.
As such, Pep Guardiola was forced into offering relentless minutes to Rico Lewis for a prolonged period of time, and despite the teenager performing to an extremely high standard, the Manchester City Academy graduate was overdue a rest.
The trip to the south coast on Saturday afternoon presented Guardiola with his first opportunity in multiple matches to offer the 19-year-old a break, and in turn, provide Walker with the chance to re-build his season at right-back for the club.
However, speaking after the 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth, Guardiola revealed that his reinstated Manchester City captain did not train for around 19 days before starting the hugely challenging contest at the Vitality Stadium.
Guardiola explained on the veteran full-back, “His last game was with the (England) national team to reach 100 games and since then he could not train one session.
“Yesterday (Friday) he did six minutes. It is what it is. Accept it,” the Manchester City manager said.
As for Walker himself, the Manchester City captain has pointed towards the immediate opportunity that the players and club have to put the recent wrongs over the last two games right in the UEFA Champions League.
“That’s the beauty of football,” said Walker at the Vitality Stadium. “There’s always another game and to bounce back we need to make sure we rest up, recover as best as we can and then we go to Sporting for another tough, tough game because they’re flying in the league.”
Manchester City will undergo a light recovery session on Sunday morning before full training resumes on Monday with the complete squad ahead of making the trip to the Portuguese capital later on the same afternoon.
