Pep Guardiola has been left frustrated by the unreliability of some of his Manchester City defenders to play games due to repeated injuries.
After signing Manuel Akanji on deadline day of the summer transfer window, City now have five senior centre-backs at their disposal but have rarely, if ever, had the full complement available this season.
Aymeric Laporte has only just returned to the team in recent weeks after undergoing surgery in May to fix an issue he bravely played through the pain of towards the end of the last campaign.
Nathan Ake has continued to have his own injury troubles as well while John Stones remains sidelined with a hamstring injury and is still at least a week away from returning to the fold.
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