Pep Guardiola and Manchester City look to have been handed a significant boost ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League game against Borussia Dortmund, with Jadon Sancho reportedly set to miss the tie through injury.
According to the Manchester Evening News, the England international will likely miss the game at the Etihad later this week after missing training ahead of the game through injury.
The 21-year-old sensation has been sidelined since March through injury and wasn’t fit enough to earn a call-up to Gareth Southgate’s England squad during the recent international break.
Interim manager Edin Terzic has suggested that they are hoping to have the winger back in the near future but hinted that the game on Tuesday would come too soon for him, although he could make his comeback ahead of the return leg at Signal Iduna Park later this month.
Sancho has been in sensational form for BVB once again this season, contributing six goals and nine assists in 21 Bundesliga appearances this season, resulting in a superb average rating of 7.57/10.
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This is enough to rank him as Dortmund’s best performer in the German top-flight so far this season, ahead of Erling Haaland, so it is undoubtedly a boost for Guardiola’s side that he seemingly won’t be available for the first leg.
It also would have been the first time Sancho would have faced the club he was at as a youngster, having left the Etihad in 2017 due to a lack of first-team opportunities at the club, so he definitely would have wanted to be fit to play against Guardiola’s side in the hope that he could emphasise what they missed out on.
The young winger has established himself as one of the brightest young talents in world football during his time in the Bundesliga and earned himself a lot of praise from German legend Lothar Matthaus back in 2019, as he said:
“He’s a natural footballer. A player who has everything: fantastic speed, great technique, a good eye for his colleagues and that key pass. For me, he is a perfect player.”
Therefore, it is clear that Sancho would have been one of Dortmund’s biggest threats to City at the Etihad on Tuesday if he were fit, so it is a massive boost to Guardiola’s chances of steering his side to a win in the first leg that he has now seemingly been ruled out.
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