Injury concerns continue to pile up for Manchester City as John Stones is the latest player to go down

The injury concerns have grown for Manchester City following England’s 2-all draw with Belgium overnight. This time, it was John Stones who limped off early in Gareth Southgate’s team’s draw at Wembley. It caps a frustrating international break for the world champions. They are now sweating on the condition of several key players ahead of Sunday’s massive Premier League fixture against Arsenal.

Stones was forced off after 10 minutes of action against Belgium. He stretched awkwardly in the early stages of the 2-all draw and was replaced by Joe Gomez. The injury suffered by Stones caps off a frustrating international break for Manchester City. Kyle Walker, Manuel Akanji, Matheus Nunes, and now John Stones all return to the Etihad under an injury cloud ahead of this weekend’s clash with Arsenal

Speaking after England’s draw with Belgium Gareth Southgate believes John Stones suffered an abductor injury. He also hit back at suggestions that playing Stones in back to back games was a risk. The England manager told the media: ” We’ve done exactly what Holland did with Virgil van Dijk tonight, what Norway did with Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard, starting both games. Holland also started Nathan Ake again. It only ever seems to fall on us when there’s a question about that. But of course, we’re disappointed if he’s got a problem. It’s in the adductor area. He came in on the back of not having played for two weeks, so it wasn’t an overload issue.”

Southgate’s words will come as small consolation to Manchester City and Pep Guardiola. They will now wait for the injury suffered by Stones to be assessed when he returns to the club. Given John Stones importance to the world champions, they will be hoping for positive news when the injury is assessed.