Man City team news: Guardiola receives boost as star midfielder reveals he is not injured
Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan started in the Caraboa Cup victory over Wolves mid-week.
City ended up winning the game on penalties with Gundogan playing the full 120 minutes.
The midfielder of Turkish origin has been receiving increased playing time since recovering from a knee injury which had him ruled out of action since last December.
Gundogan did appear to be struggling in the closing stages of extra time and there were fears that he had injured himself.
The 26-year-old revealed that he does not think he has pulled anything and that it does not look ‘that bad’.
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Gundogan revealed it was just cramp which is probably down to the lack of football he has played this year.
“The last ten minutes were really tough for me,” he told the official Man City website.
“Fortunately, it doesn’t look that bad. I don’t think I’ve pulled something.
“It feels like coming from zero to a hundred! 110 minutes I could handle in a very good way, but the last ten minutes, my legs were cramping everywhere, especially in the groin.
“I was also a little bit scared that when I do a sprint that something would pull. That’s why I wanted to stay on the field because the result was tight.
“I didn’t want to leave the field and leave my team one man down, but, yeah, the last 10 minutes I couldn’t take an important part of the game. But the lads did it very well.
“Normally I would also have taken a penalty but I was scared that when I shoot something bad would happen!
“The guys did great. In the end, we deserved to win. Especially in the first half, we should have finished the game.
“At the end, we made it tough for ourselves but the most important thing was to win and make it to the next round.”
Gundogan has yet to make a start in the Premier League or Champions League since returning.
City travel to The Hawthorns Stadium to take on West Brom in the Premier League, Gundogan is expected to make the squad for the clash.