Manchester City coach Enzo Maresca announced on Monday that Ghanaian forward Antoine Semenyo will be sidelined for up to eight weeks due to a leg injury.
Semenyo's injury occurred during last week's match when the league leaders defeated Ipswich 3-2, securing their seventh consecutive Premier League victory this season.
Speaking ahead of the upcoming Champions League match against AEK Athens at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, Maresca expressed optimism regarding the physical condition of Erling Haaland, Mateo Kovacic, Matheus Nunes, and Nico O'Reilly, but was less certain about Semenyo.
He stated: 'The others are more or less fine. The only one who will likely be out for around eight weeks is Antoine.' Despite this, Maresca noted that Semenyo's scan results were 'not as bad as we expected.'
It was observed that the star striker Haaland was limping after the game against Ipswich. Maresca added: 'He might be available, we'll see; we have a training session now. After Sunday's match, we have some doubts. He played quite well yesterday, better. So we will see today.'
The Italian coach also commented on the squad, saying: 'Firstly, losing Antoine or any other player is not good for us.' He continued: 'Regarding Erling, we said we could use Antoine as a ninth striker, but we also have other players we plan to try and find new solutions.'
Maresca emphasized that as long as Erling is in the squad, there is no need to think about another striker, but if a change in plan or a change of the ninth striker becomes necessary, they will consider it.
Maresca became the first coach to win seven starting matches in the Premier League with a new club. However, this impressive start comes amid accusations against the club of breaching the financial rules of the English top division by more than 100 points—all these accusations are denied by 'City,' while Maresca has repeatedly stated that he 'fully trusts the club.'
Nevertheless, in the last Champions League match, 'City' lost to title holders Paris Saint-Germain 4-2, and Maresca insisted that there were no questions about protecting players from potential injury risks against AEK. He concluded: 'Tomorrow's match is very important for us. It is a Champions League match, and unfortunately, we lost the last one; we need to win matches, and we will try to win the game with our best players at the moment.'