What a blow: De Bruyne out until 2024!

Before the start of the season, the current champion Manchester City was considered the main candidate for the title. The Citizens began their title defense with a convincing victory at Turf Moor against Burnley, but on Tuesday, Manchester City's ambitions to win another crown in the Premier League suffered a serious blow. Reason: serious injury to Kevin de Bruyne. Luckily for the Belgian, it’s not ligament tear or something like that, but the Citizen's captain will be separated from the field probably until the end of the calendar year. No one is ready to officially say that yet, but most of British media are sharing the information that the Belgian will miss the next four months. The operations and recoveries from them are not so easy to predict, so it could be less than four months, but it could certainly be more than that.

De Bruyne left the field halfway through the visit to Burnley on Friday night, but the severity of the injury was not known at the time. Until today, when on the eve of the valuable European Super Cup match with Sevilla in Athens, Pep Guardiola confirmed that his most famous player will have to take a long sick leave.

"We have to decide if it's surgery or not surgery but he will be out for a few months. It will be decided in the next few days. Surgery is surgery. He will be out for three or four months. The injury for Kevin is a sore blow for us. But at the same time we have to look forward. The skills of Kevin are irreplaceable but it's an opportunity for others and I'm sure they will take it" explained the Catalan.

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There is every chance that the latest developments could influence the decision of the management of Manchester City to speed up the work on bringing in Lucas Paqueta from West Ham. The Citizens wanted the talented Brazilian last season as well, but former Lyon player waited too long for them and didn’t want to put up with uncertainty, so he signed for the Hammers. Now West Ham want more than 70 million pounds for the player, who has a 85 million clause in his contract, which will be activated in 2024.