Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is concerned about the number of injuries in his squad ahead of the Carabao Cup clash with Newcastle United on Wednesday.
Ahead of the third round tie, Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones, Mateo Kovacic and Bernardo Silva are all injured.
However, returning winger, Jack Grealish, could play in the match.
“Now I’ll go home, tomorrow training and day off afterwards, and prepare the game in Newcastle,” Guardiola said after the win against Nottingham Forest.
“We’ll see how many players we’ll have available. It will be good for Jack [Grealish] to take minutes, and of course some players have a lot of minutes, they are not going to play against Newcastle. That’s for sure.
“Carabao Cup is perfect when you are in the beginning of the season because the games at the beginning of the season you have all the squad, deep squad, for the guys that don’t play regularly, they have to play the minutes. That’s perfect.
“But we have a lot of injuries, I’m not going to waste one percent of energy for Carabao Cup, like Kyle Walker for example, like Ruben [Dias], who have played 90 minutes for the national team, 90 minutes, because they are exhausted already. And we cannot lose it.
“That’s why we’re going to play with the guys who need it, maybe from the Academy, maybe if my back is getting better, [I can play] maybe a few minutes. We’ll see.”
