Pep Guardiola revealed that Rodri will not be "really fit" until after the September international break after suffering an injury setback at the Club World Cup.

The Manchester City midfielder missed the majority of the 2024-25 season after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) against Arsenal last September.

Rodri returned as a substitute for the penultimate 2024-25 Premier League game and featured in all four of their matches at the Club World Cup, but was substituted off against Al-Hilal with a reported groin problem.

The Man City manager hopes Rodri can still play a role in their opening matches against Wolves, Tottenham and Brighton, but insisted they will not risk provoking another setback.

"Rodri is getting better, but he had a big injury in the last game against Al-Hilal," said Guardiola.

"He has trained better in the last few days. Hopefully after the international break, he will be really fit.

"Hopefully, in these games, he can play some minutes, but what is important is that he doesn't have pain because we don't want Rodri coming back injured. We will try desperately to avoid that.

"He has been training the last two sessions with us and that's good."

Man City have bolstered their midfield this summer, bringing in Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Cherki and Sverre Nypan, but Rodri is an essential player for Guardiola.

Since Rodri’s Community Shield debut in August 2019, Man City have won 73.2% of matches with the midfielder starting, but that figure dropped to 61.7% without him across all competitions.

Guardiola’s side also scored more goals (2.5) per game and conceded fewer (0.8) with Rodri, though that dropped to 2.2 goals scored and 1.0 conceded per game when absent.