Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted that Rodri is not ready for the rigorous season fixture schedule and does not know when he will be back to his best form, Afrosport reports.
The Spanish midfielder sat out City’s 5-1 win over Burnley on Saturday after feeling pain in the knee in which he tore his anterior cruciate ligament early last season, but travelled to Monaco for Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League clash.
Rodri first returned at the Club World Cup in the summer but suffered an injury setback during that tournament which saw him miss the first game of the season against Wolves before going on to play the next seven games.
Guardiola will however continue to take a cautious approach in managing his fitness.
“The week before so demanding with United, Napoli especially Arsenal and right now if you owe me my feeling right now is not able to play three games a week at top, top, top level, top intensity and demanding of the opponents,” he said.
“My feeling right now he is not ready because he needs time. he needs time, so… With this kind of inury yu need minimum one year.”
Guardiola went on to give his admiration for Monaco and the players they have produced over the years like Kylian Mbappe as well and Bernardo Silva and Benjamin Mendy, whom City signed in 2017.
“I always had a big admiration for Monaco young talent players and always I’ve been there since I remember a long time ago when I came when Arsène Wenger was the manager,” he added.
“I was a football player and Jurgen Klinsmann even played there. We won here 0-1, I think so. And after the time with always I have been here with the Super Cup finals with Barcelona and when Bernardo was playing there and Bernardo, Mendy, Mbappe. Fabinho, what a team, my god, what the team they had in that moment.
“Always have a good team, play a lot of players inside, link inside, attack with the channels. Aggressive, really, really aggressive in the game. Yeah, hopefully we can read good what we have to do and… take important victory.”
Champions League nights under the Monaco lights ✨ pic.twitter.com/CjVe7dvd9g
— Manchester City (@ManCity) October 1, 2025
Monaco and Man City met in the Champions League round of 16 during the 2016-17 season with the Principality outfit recording a famous 6-6 aggregate victory on away goals.
