Cursed opening day: Timber and De Bruyne suffer bad injuries

Arsenal's recent signing Jurrien Timber and Manchester City's playmaker Kevin De Bruyne endured a painful opening weekend in the Premier League.

Pep Guardiola confirmed that De Bruyne will be out for a while due to an injury he picked up in the opening game of the Premier League season. The Belgian had a hamstring injury from the Champions League final in June and missed the pre-season. Despite returning recently, he started in the match against Burnley but had to be substituted after just 23 minutes due to the same injury issue.

Guardiola stated that De Bruyne will have a lengthy period of recovery ahead.

"He is injured again, unfortunately. Same place and position as the Champions League and he will be out for a while."

Ruben Dias and John Stones were both absent from the journey to Burnley. In their place, Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji took up the roles in central defence, while Josko Gvardiol made his debut as a substitute.

Guardiola disclosed that Stones had suffered an abductor injury, while Dias was recuperating from a concussion.

"Ruben has a tough concussion, and the protocol of the Premier League says you need seven days off, and that's why he's not here today."

On Saturday, Jurrien Timber was forced off the pitch with an injury less than an hour into his Premier League debut for Arsenal.

The Dutch defender was included in the starting lineup for the match against Nottingham Forest, but he had a bad day. Early on, he seemed to sustain an injury following a collision with Forest's Brennan Johnson during the first half. This incident also led to him receiving a yellow card. He had to come off early in the second half.