Sterling given more responsibility as City face big De Bruyne blow

Kevin De Bruyne: Facing a spell on the sidelines

Kevin De Bruyne: Facing a spell on the sidelines

Pep Guardiola is ready to put additional belief in Raheem Sterling after telling the forward to become Manchester City’s main man in the light of Kevin De Bruyne’s hamstring injury.

Belgium playmaker De Bruyne – whose stats will tell you is the best player in Europe in his position on current form – is expected to be sidelined for around a month after limping out of Saturday’s 3-1 success at Swansea – the club’s sixth straight league win of the season.

 

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The club are still awaiting the full diagnosis of De Bruyne’s injury, with the full extent of the damage not expected to be known until Wednesday.

But City boss Guardiola is already fearing the worst – but believes Sterling – who scored his fourth goal of the season at the weekend – can more than fill the breach.

“Kevin is not going to play the next games and now we need to keep going and win the games without him. We have to do that,” Guardiola said. “Raheem feels that. He feels that his team-mates appreciate his efforts – the staff, the coaches – we are so happy about what he has.

“But again this is only September. I would like to be in May with one game left but we are in September and we have only played six games. We have a lot of games to play.”