Kevin De Bruyne has returned to the pitch and Pep Guardiola has expressed joy on behalf of every Manchester City fan and staff about the Belgian’s recovery.
De Bruyne picked up an injury in his first game of the ongoing season and has been in recovery for the past five months. He returned to training recently and the process has gone smoothly enough that he has beat his estimated February return date.
Last week, the player posted a picture of him in training recently with a caption, “Guess who’s back?” indicating that he could return to the squad dynamics soon. Against Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup, he came on in the 57th minute for striker Julian Alvarez. He registered an assist in the 74th minute for fellow returnee Jeremy Doku, who rounded off a 5 – 0 rout of the lower division club.
The fans were ecstatic about the Belgian’s return and his assist sent them into a frenzy, as he showed them what they had been missing while he was out.
Guardiola is excited about the former VfL Wolfsburg man’s return and talked about how the whole club is happy he is up and running again.
“He played really good minutes, and we thought it was better in the second-half when there was more space because they defended really, really deep and the spaces were so hard to find,” said Pep.
“But in the second half there were more spaces and we played with good intention, and it was really, really good.
“Now, as I said in the previous press conferences, Kevin needs to accumulate training sessions, training sessions and more training sessions – even more than games.
“Now with Newcastle (next weekend) we have another chance, then we have two weeks to have good training sessions here and in Abu Dhabi, so we are ready for the second part of the season.
“But I am incredibly happy to have him back because Kevin helps you to win games.
“Kevin, Haaland, Phil… these guys win games – that’s why they’re so important for us.
“I’m pretty sure that in the last game Kevin felt how the people love him and how our people are in love with him, and that mutual respect will be forever.”
Guardiola then emphasised that he will carefully manage De Bruyne’s minutes until he is certain that the Belgian can play full matches once again.
He then added that De Bruyne’s return does not mean a quick fix for the problems that has besieged the club in recent times, which has seen them drop down into third on the Premier League log.
