Man City forced into late Enzo Fernandez change as new injury worry emerges for Enzo Maresca

Manchester City were forced into a late change before kickoff in their Premier League clash with Coventry City, as Nico O'Reilly pulled up injured in the warm-up.

The England international was due to start alongside Elliot Anderson in the engine room against Frank Lampard's men, having been given the nod over Enzo Fernandez.

The latter was originally named on the bench following his £125m deadline-day arrival from Chelsea, but he was unexpectedly pressed into action earlier than Enzo Maresca had planned.

O'Reilly was seen holding his back and moving uncomfortably during the warm-up, and the versatile youngster was forced to drop out of the XI, as Fernandez came in for his full debut.

The Argentine joined Iliman Ndiaye in the starting lineup as Man City's two deadline-day arrivals made their full debuts against the newly-promoted side, although Ayyoub Bouaddi was left on the bench again.

How many Man City games could Nico O'Reilly miss?

There is little information on O'Reilly's injury at the time of writing, only that the Englishman was evidently struggling with his back, suggesting at a possible muscular problem.

Maresca will undoubtedly be asked for an update in his post-game press conference, but back injuries are typically categorised into three different groups of severity - grade one, grade two and grade three.

A Grade 1 injury refers to a minor strain or muscle tightness, the least severe of the three, although such injuries can still take two weeks to heal, meaning O'Reilly would be at risk of sitting out games against Porto and derby rivals Manchester United.

A Grade 2 injury can take up to six weeks of recovery, putting O'Reilly at risk of missing matches against Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain in October, while a Grade 3 injury could render a player unavailable for months.

Arsenal's William Saliba exacerbated an existing back injury while playing for France at the World Cup, and the defender is unlikely to return to action before the end of the calendar year.

Man City's record with and without Nico O'Reilly

O'Reilly is just one of two injury concerns for Man City at present, as Jeremy Doku is dealing with a calf problem and is not guaranteed to return before the international break.

The presence of Ndiaye, Antoine Semenyo and Phil Foden means that City are well-covered without Doku, and the same is seemingly true for O'Reilly with Anderson, Bouaddi and Fernandez all arriving.

However, the difference in Man City's success rates with and without the Englishman are striking; since the start of 2024-25, the Sky Blues have won 71.4% of games with O'Reilly playing, but that percentage drops to 42.6% without him.

Overall, Man City have suffered just 10 losses from 77 games with O'Reilly involved over the past two-and-a-bit seasons, but they have been beaten in 18 of their 47 O'Reilly-less fixtures.