Pep Guardiola issues Kevin De Bruyne injury update as Man City sweat before Arsenal test

Man City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne faces a race against time to be fit for the Premier League showdown with Arsenal this Sunday after sustaining a suspected groin injury.

The Belgian midfielder was substituted at the break during City’s stalemate with Inter Milan, sparking fears he could miss the crunch clash against title challengers Arsenal.

In his post-match interview, City manager Pep Guardiola admitted uncertainty surrounding De Bruyne’s condition, stating: “I don’t know, I haven’t spoken with the doctors yet. I will have more information when I do. We will assess him tomorrow.”

Despite the draw, Guardiola praised his squad: “We played so well and I love my team. We are a fantastic team. But Inter are the masters of defending, and in transition they are really strong as well. I’m really pleased with the performance we did. It is the beginning of the season, so these players will be better.”

City defender Ruben Dias reflected on the team’s early-season form and the game’s outcome: “The season has just started. When we came back from the international break, the pre-season had just finished. It’s very early stages, obviously we know what we are as a team and today I think we were on a very good level.

“We ended up not scoring, we could have, we had the chances, but that’s football and obviously there’s a lot of margin to progress from our side.

“We knew they could be dangerous in many different scenarios. They have people who know very well how to keep the ball and also in transitions they can be very dangerous.

“We know them very well, especially since the final we played against them. We knew the different ways in which they can hurt us, but in the end we are who we are, we played the game we played and we dealt with it.”

Meanwhile, Inter Milan’s manager Simone Inzaghi said after the final whistle: “I said well done to my players, because they put in a giant performance. I asked them to play exactly as they did.

“We all know City and what they are capable of. We knew we had to pull out all the stops, play a great game and we did it.”