Rodrigo Muniz’s late goal resulted in nervy scenes towards the end (Picture: Getty)
Manchester City star Mateo Kovacic made a worrying admission about Rodri after Saturday’s nervous 3-2 win over Fulham, declaring: ‘We miss him a lot.’
Pep Guardiola’s Premier League champions fell 1-0 behind to Fulham at the Etihad with former Manchester United star Andreas Pereira opening the scoring.
Two goals from Kovacic, plus a third from Jeremy Doku, put City back in control but there were nervy scenes at the end when Rodrigo Muniz pulled one back.
City eventually got the job done but Kovacic firmly admits that Guardiola’s side are badly missing Rodri, who has been ruled out for the whole season with injury.
‘I am playing there in the middle at the moment and of course we need to cover for Rodri, we miss him a lot,’ Kovacic told Premier League Productions.
‘I think any team would miss him, the player that he is, and we wish him a speedy recovery and hope he comes back in a good a shape as possible.
‘For now we have to adapt – and for sure the manager has a lot of options so we can rotate.’
City boss Pep Guardiola was also quizzed about Rodri’s absence after the match and added: ‘We don’t have him now this season so we have to find a solution.
‘We have Kova, Gundo, we can put John [Stones] in that role, Rico [Lewis], Manu [Akanji] so we have to find a way.
‘Of course, the presence of Rodri is important in this type of game, with the transitions, but we played really well.’
Guardiola described Fulham as a ‘really good team’ and made reference to the two players they’ve signed from City’s Premier League title rivals Arsenal.
‘It is a really, really good team,’ he said. ‘Marco [Silva] is a top manager who has been working there for many, many years already.
‘They have players they bought in the summer, including the ones from Arsenal [Smith-Rowe and Nelson] and they have a lot of quality.’