Pep Guardiola has confirmed that Savinho is fit and available for Manchester City’s Premier League match against Newcastle United while Jeremy Doku remains sidelined.
City will host Newcastle at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday at 20:00 UK time, with the chance to close the five-point gap to league leaders Arsenal.
Savinho has been out for nearly two months, last appearing in the 1-1 draw at Sunderland on New Year’s Day. Doku has not played since being substituted during City’s Champions League victory over Galatasaray at the end of January.
“Doku is not ready and Savinho is ready,” Guardiola said during his Friday press conference.
City enjoyed a rare midweek break following their 2-0 FA Cup win over Salford City last Saturday. Erling Haaland did not feature in that match, which set up City’s fifth encounter of the season with Newcastle.
Earlier in the season, City won both legs of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Newcastle while the Magpies claimed a 2-1 win at St James’ Park in November.
Guardiola believes the midweek rest has benefited his squad. “The important thing is the players are revitalised after three days,” he said.
“We’ve had a lot of months with few days off, games every weekend and midweek. I don’t have to run one metre so for me it’s not a problem. After one or two days I sleep well so it’s enough. For the players it’s really good, they have a long week to rest, to forget about football and to train good. And they trained good in the last few days.”
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