Man City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne did not play against Brentford due to a hamstring issue, manager Pep Guardiola has revealed.
De Bruyne was dropped to the bench for the visit of Brentford, but did not emerge before the game to warm up with the other substitutes.
He did not take part in any warm-ups during the 90 minutes as he remained on the City bench throughout.
Guardiola has spoken about some players lacking rhythm, and also managing the fitness of those players returning from injury, with De Bruyne recently admitting he is still not back to full fitness following his four-month lay-off.
Before the Brentford game, he had started four of the previous five matches and come off the bench in the three previous outings as he excelled on his return from injury.
And Guardiola confirmed that he took no risks with De Bruyne after he picked up a hamstring problem.
“We did not use Kevin today because he has niggles in his hamstring position,” the manager confirmed.
“He’s okay. It’s more caution and prevention than anything. He didn’t feel comfortable and the doctors said there was a little bit of risk. After five months off, we did not take any risk with that.”
City face Bournemouth on Saturday before an FA Cup trip to Luton next week. After that, they begin a run of fixtures against Manchester United, Copenhagen, Liverpool, Brighton, Arsenal and Aston Villa.
The Blues welcomed back John Stones and Bernardo Silva after their respective rests against Chelsea, with Jack Grealish and Josko Gvardiol still a week or two away from returning. Grealish has muscular issues, while Gvardiol has ankle ligament issues.
