Man City injury news: Pep Guardiola’s side will “feel the effects” of missing “magic” star after “massive blow” confirmed

The lengthy absence of injured summer signing Rayan Cherki comes as a “massive blow” to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, Citizens expert Steven McInerney from Esteemed Kompany has told Sports Mole.

Following the departure of club legend Kevin De Bruyne, Man City signed 21-year-old playmaker Cherki in June for a reported £34m after an impressive 2024-25 season for Ligue 1 side Lyon, scoring 12 goals and providing 22 assists in 44 games across all competitions.

Cherki made four appearances for the Citizens at the FIFA Club World Cup, scoring his first goal for the club in a group-stage victory over Al-Ain, before netting on his Premier League debut as a substitute in a 4-0 opening win at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The France international, described as a “mercurial” and “majestic” footballer, has been handed the No.10 shirt at Man City following the loan exit of Jack Grealish, which suggests that the highly-rated youngster could have an important role to play under Guardiola.

However, Cherki was left out of Man City’s matchday squad for last weekend’s 2-1 Premier League defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion after picking up an unspecified injury, and Guardiola has confirmed that he will be “out for two months. Seven or eight weeks.”

Cherki will be sidelined for a busy period in Man City’s season and could miss up to 11 games across three different competitions, starting with the Manchester derby after the international break on September 14.

Cherki injury a “massive blow” and City will “feel the effects”

McInerney believes that Guardiola has big plans for Cherki and Man City, who have already lost two of their opening three Premier League matches this season, will now “feel the effects” of his absence.

Sharing his thoughts on the significance of Cherki’s injury setback, McInerney told Sports Mole: “It's difficult. These are the games that you need someone like Cherki to adapt to the pace before it gets to the winter months, before the games get bigger and faster and players get more tired.

“It's a massive blow if I'm being honest because we know that Cherki was brought in as a reaction to De Bruyne leaving. A creative playmaker, one of the most gifted ones in the world last season.

“It's a massive blow for City's spontaneity and the creativity, because we were clearly going to lean on what he could bring to this City side.

“He was one of City's signature signings and two months (out) is an awful long time in your first season, and there's nothing to say that that won't roll on a little bit longer. He might be [out for shorter or longer] we don't know, but that is a blow to City because I think Cherki was very much in Guardiola's plans.

“I would have expected - and I think we saw signs against Spurs - Cherki to be a big part of how we're planning to keep the ball in this new [Gianluigi] Donnarumma era, because we're not going to be as good with the ball at our feet with Ederson not there anymore.

“We saw signs against Tottenham with Cherki dropping deep trying to get the ball and I think Guardiola really rates that side of his game in terms of his ball retention and so on. It wasn't quite perfect against Spurs, but it was clearly part of the plans and that is not an option anymore, so we're going to feel the effects of that.”

‘Cherki is a little bit of magic that City are going to miss’

McInerney believes that Man City still have a number of players who can fill the creative void in Cherki’s absence, but no-one possesses the same instinctive “magic” as the talented Frenchman.

“It's a big year for Phil Foden. I think that's very obvious,” said McInerney. “I'm expecting Phil to try and make up for lost ground. He's a very different player to Cherki who’s more instinctively creative, but I think we're going to lean on Phil a little bit.

“I think he'll enjoy having Rodri back in the team as he was at his best when Rodri was sort of behind him in the 23-24 campaign. You would expect [Foden] to be the main outlet there.

“I think [Tijjani] Reijnders will get a bit of freedom to go forward an awful lot more. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a really aggressive midfield of Nico Gonzalez alongside Rodri at some point, with Reijnders giving a bit of a free reign.

“I think a lot of [creativity] will come from wide. Hopefully Savinho comes back into this side focused, fresh and determined to have an impact on this City side.

“But I don't think there's anyone like Cherki. There's ways to plug that gap, but Cherki is much more creative than pretty much any of our other options in terms of his game.

“Rodri has that wonderful ability to dink the ball to the back post, so that'll be useful. Reijnders can create as we've seen, Foden can, but Cherki is a little bit of magic that I think we're going to miss unfortunately.”

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