Man City handed major new injury concern ahead of Liverpool clash as Kevin De Bruyne fitness update given

John Stones was missing from Manchester City training this afternoon.

The defender was not involved in the session as Pep Guardiola’s side prepare to face Feyenoord in the Champions League. Stones was withdrawn at half-time in City’s shock 4-0 loss against Tottenham Hotspur last weekend.

City’s defeat meant that Liverpool moved eight points clear at the summit of the Premier League table after battling to a 3-2 win over Southampton. The modern-day rivals are set to meet in a seismic clash at Anfield on Sunday. Guardiola has already admitted that if City lose and fall 11 points behind the Reds in the title race then it will be too big of a gap to close.

And the current champions could now be sweating on key centre-back Stones. They will already be without defensive-midfield duo Rodri and Mateo Kovacic along with Oscar Bobb. However, central defender Ruben Dias was back with the squad along with winger Jeremy Doku.

Guardiola did not give an update on Stones’ fitness at his pre-match press conference earlier this afternoon. Kevin De Bruyne was also on media duties, though, and discussed his frustrating fitness woes. The attacking midfielder said: “It's basically your lower abdomen and everything with the nerves around was creating pain in my groin, so I couldn't really shoot.

“Every time I would shoot the ball I would get pain. So I was trying to find methods to get better, to get my power back but it took a long time to get better and actually it only got better on Friday. And now the last few days it's been better. So I'm hoping to get that going upwards and that's it.”