Manchester City playmaker Rayan Cherki will be out for around two months because of injury, manager Pep Guardiola said on Sunday, and has been replaced in the France squad by in-form Liverpool striker Hugo Ekitike.
Around the same time as Guardiola was giving his injury diagnosis for Cherki, France were announcing that the midfielder had torn his left quadricep and was out of upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Ukraine and Iceland.
Cherki, who joined City from Lyon in the offseason, picked up his injury in training this week and didn’t play in his new team’s 2-1 loss at Brighton on Sunday.
The 23-year-old Ekitike has scored in each of his first three games for Liverpool following an offseason move from Eintracht Frankfurt.
Cherki’s misfortune has benefitted Ekiktike who is now set to earn his first France caps after initially missing out on Didier Deschamps’ squad. He played 79 minutes of Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Arsenal at Anfield.
Guardiola admitted City “forgot to play” after conceding a pivotal second-half penalty en route to suffering a last-gasp 2-1 Premier League loss at Brighton.
Former City midfielder James Milner converted the 67th-minute spot-kick to become the second oldest scorer in the competition’s history before fellow Brighton substitute Brajan Gruda sparked wild celebrations with an 89th-minute winner.
The visitors had been in complete control at the Amex Stadium and led thanks to Erling Haaland marking his 100th English top-flight appearance with an 88th goal when he stabbed home a first-half opener.
Asked what changed the contest, City manager Guardiola — who revealed absent summer signing Rayan Cherki faces up to two months on the sidelines — replied: “The penalty. We shoot (blew) the game. We forgot to play.
“We decided to play long, more direct, it’s fine but it has to be ready for that. We were not ready to win the second (balls) when it happened.
“Of course the momentum in the Premier League always changes after a goal, it can do that.
“But in that moment we forgot to start to play like we had done brilliantly the first hour against a tough opponent.
“We conceded a goal and after that we were a little bit more unstable; not unstable because I know how good they are, how strong they are – it’s because we forget to continue playing. You never, never can stop playing.”
Defeat for City was a second in succession following last weekend’s deflating 2-0 home loss to Tottenham.
Haaland squandered a hat-trick of chances before opening the scoring in the 37th minute.
Brighton barely threatened until head coach Fabian Hurzeler made a quadruple substitution just after the hour mark, including introducing Milner and Gruda.
Information from PA and the Associated Press contributed to this report
– Liverpool submit £35m bid for Palace’s Marc Guéhi – source
– Rodri on full return in Man City defeat: ‘I’m not Messi’
– Premier League table
>
