Pep Guardiola confirms the games Ruben Dias and John Stones will miss | Football

The centre-backs started in midweek as City crashed out of the Carabao Cup at the hands of Tottenham but were nowhere to be seen at the clash at Bournemouth on Saturday.

The Citizens, struggling with multiple fitness and injury issues, were defeated 2-1 at the Vitality Stadium, their first Premier League defeat of the season.

Speaking before the game, Guardiola ambiguously said Dias and Stones were ‘ruled out for little bit of long time’.

The manager clarified the extent and nature of their injuries in his post-match press conference, adding: ‘Ruben’s injury is muscular and will be out until the international break.

‘We couldn’t match up to the intensity. All the situations with the long balls, we couldn’t win it,’ Guardiola added.

‘And when you don’t win these types of balls to [Antoine] Semenyo and others, our central defenders and strikers have to defend deeper. 

‘We struggled to make our [game], but especially for that. In the game, for many reasons, they were higher than us.

‘We have players with rhythm and the other players have a lack of rhythm because we could not train due to injuries. But we knew it.’

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