Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini is worried about the constant injuries sustained by defender Wayne Bridge.
The 30-year-old might be among the group of players to leave the club. He could be joined by other star players like Roque Santa Cruz, Emmanuel Adebayor, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joleon Lescott, all of them might not see the end of the current season and
it is possible they will be offloaded in January transfer window.
Mancini is concerned with his English defender’s injury problems, as the former Chelsea left-back hasn’t been able to complete full 90 minutes this season so far.
The former Inter Milan coach expected his defender to be fully fit for tonight’s Europa League clash against Salzburg at home, but the defender could only manage 20 minutes in the training yesterday and is a major doubt in tonight’s crucial match.
The Blues had to pay £12 million to rival club Chelsea for securing his services but Mancini questions his left-back ability to finish matches.
He said, “He started to play again in the first game in Salzburg and after 70 minutes he was injured. He played in
Poznan and after 70 minutes he got injured. It’s very difficult for a player to play if he’s always injured.”
The City boss tells that the defender’s injuries are always hamstring or groin. This problem is not just with Bridge but with all the players.
Tonight is a very big game for City as only victory will take them through to the knockout stages of the Europa Cup, but they also need help from Lech Poznan. If the Polish manages to beat Juventus, City will qualify.
However there is another alternative available, City will have to beat Juventus at Turin in two weeks’ time in the final Group A fixture. Although it will be a tough task for a side whose form has been inconsistent so far. Mancini would love to win tonight
and hopefully quality for the knockout stages so he can concentrate on the more important Premier League.
Mancini stressed that his team’s focus will be on tonight and won’t be thinking about other results. If they win only then they can relax and wait for other results.
December is the busiest time of the year when teams in the Premier League have to play extra games during charismas period. No team can afford to have a bad record during this month.
Mancini also maintain that teams play all the time in this month and they could even find themselves on top of league if they play well enough and only after the end of the month they will analyse what more needs to be done for the future.
Along with Bridge and other unwanted players that the manager will be looking to offload in January, the Club have already targeted host of new players as their replacements and it is expected the City's Billionaire owner Sheikh Mansoor will go on another
spending spree.
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