Pep Guardiola bemoans Man City squad being unable to fly home from Newcastle

Pep Guardiola has bemoaned his side’s inability to fly back to Manchester after their fixture against Newcastle United on Wednesday night, claiming it will cost his side valuable recovery time.

Manchester City travel to face Eddie Howe’s side in the third round of the Carabao Cup at St James’ Park but will be unable to travel back by train due to the time at which the game finishes.

With their plane also out of use, City will be forced to make the 300-mile round trip by bus, with the late return presenting concerns around recovery time given City must then travel to Wolves the next day for their weekend Premier League fixture.

‘We cannot come back by plane because we don’t have planes to travel back so we have to take a bus, it’s two, three hours later, we arrive here so, so late,’ Guardiola said.

‘I don’t know what happened [to the aeroplane]. The team manager told me it happened with the previous one in London. 

‘The bus is no problem but we arrive much later than we expect. Then Friday we have to travel to Wolves for Saturday.’

City already have injuries to Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne and John Stones and will also be without influential midfielder Rodri as he begins the first of a three-match ban after a red card against Nottingham Forest.  

Jack Grealish and Mateo Kovacic are likely to return to first-team action after the pair recovered from their respective knocks.

The Premier League leaders have faced Newcastle already in the campaign, with Julian Alvarez’s first-half strike earning them after a hard-fought 1-0 home victory in August.

Their hectic travels extend beyond just these next few days, however, with four of their five games in October also away from home, including a midweek clash next week with RB Leipzig in the Champions League.

The defending champions side got off to a winning start in Group G with a 3-1 win against Crvena Zvezda and will look to make it two from two against the German outfit who they knocked out in the round of 16 last year.

‘It’s a really, really important game for us because we know what it means to be able to win there for qualification for the next stage. This is what we have to do,’ the Spaniard added.

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