Bad news for Manchester City fans as the club has now confirmed what everyone was dreading: Rodri will be out for the rest of the season.
Things didn’t look good when the Spaniard was substituted during last week’s game against Arsenal after colliding with fellow midfielder Thomas Partey during a corner and given that he hadn’t long come back from his previous injury, supporters were already fearing the worst.
Rodri has been a linchpin in the middle of the park for Man City ever since he joined back in 2019, going on to win the hallowed Treble and four Premier League title wins in a row, not to mention Euro 2024 – safe to say that even for all their quality, the team doesn’t tick over quite the same without him.
Breaking the news during his press conference ahead of City’s trip to Newcastle this weekend, when asked about the exact nature of the previously unconfirmed injury, manager Pep Guardiola simply shook his head and said: “Next season he will be here. This season is over [for him].
Speaking on Friday, 27 September, the Catalan coach explained, “He had surgery this morning, ACL and some meniscus” but sadly there looks to be no hope of his returning for the remainder of this campaign.
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Pep went on to add: “Unfortunately, he got the worst. It is what it is. We are here to support him – good recovery, step by step and move forward.
This comes after the seasoned CDM suffered a fairly serious hamstring injury during the Euros final which already saw him sidelined for the start of the 24/25 season and while City do have the likes of Gundogan and Kovacic to share those duties, it doesn’t get much worse than a cruciate ligament tear.
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Guardiola did insist that they have no other player quite like Rodri in their squad, no matter how healthily stocked, and that they will simply have to try and do their best “to find a way [to replace him]” with other talents in the team.
Even prior to the severity of the ligament injury being fully revealed, his national team and former clubs such as Villareal sent messages of support, with fans, players and everyone in football alike knowing how serious an ACL injury can be, especially for someone at this particular point in his career.
As if player fitness and well-being weren’t already a pressing concern in recent times, it was only earlier this month that Rodri spoke about the ever-increasing number of games.
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In short, the number 16 says “It’s too much” and whether people see it as a sport or a business, someone needs to start looking after the “main characters”.
Fair to say with the overall average number of injuries jumping up each year and with incidents like this now having put an end to his season, he might have a point…
You can watch Pep’s pre-match press conference ahead of the match against Newcastle this Saturday down below:
New Amazon Prime Video docuseries to show Pep Guardiola’s final seasons at Manchester City
Emily Sergeant
A new all-access docuseries featuring Pep Guardiola’s final few seasons at Manchester City is set to air this summer.
Coming exclusively to Prime Video in the UK and Ireland, the four-part documentary is set to take Manchester City fans and neutral viewers alike inside the club as the players and manager – who delivered an era of dominance -make way for a new generation.
Filmed over the past two seasons, this is the ultimate account of an emotional farewell that marks the end of an era in English football, and will offer unfiltered access to Guardiola, his squad, and the City boardroom.
After 10 trophy-filled years – which included six Premier League titles, the UEFA Champions League, three FA Cups, and five EFL Cups – Pep Guardiola called time on his tenure in Manchester last month, alongside fan favourite players Bernardo Silva and John Stones, as well as Kevin De Bruyne the season prior.
This new docuseries was there to follow them every step of the process.
Fans can follow City from a disappointing 2024/25 campaign right through to a domestic double the following season, charting the raw emotion of a squad in transition.
The series is directed by Academy and BAFTA award-winning filmmaker, Kevin Macdonald, alongside City Studios’ John De Caux, and is produced by Kevin Macdonald for Plan B/KM Films and Gavin Johnson and Ged Doherty for City Studios.
“This is the ultimate account of an emotional farewell that marks the end of an era in English football,” Amazon Prime Video said in a statement.
Joining Prime Video’s wide selection of sports programming, the series will be available to watch at no additional cost to Prime members this summer.
It’ll be ready to stream on 19 August.
Featured Image – Prime Video
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Here’s our petition for ‘Wonderwall’ to become England’s new football anthem
Danny Jones
All things considered, England have made a great start to the 2026 World Cup, pitching themselves as one of the great entertainers this tournament, and the scenes of the supporters and players alike serenading an entire stadium with ‘Wonderwall’ after the full-time whistle gave us chills.
So why not time for a change?
After all, that feels a lot like what this World Cup squad is about: a new manager, new teammates, not clinging to the previous ways of playing – and perhaps it’s time to put ‘Sweet Caroline’ to one side.
Now, we’re by no means saying that we’re ‘done’ with the John Denver anthem that has been reborn as a Three Lions anthem, but look at how good it was watching England belting out Oasis with the fans.
“Today is gonna be the day that England beat Croatia 4-2”, as BBC’s Match of the Day cleverly quipped.
Obviously, we’re biased as Mancs, but we also think there’s something special about having that particular track feel so good to hear again.
As much as we love Oasis, for a long time, it felt like we couldn’t enjoy arguably their biggest-ever single anywhere near as much as we once did.
We assume it’s something akin to hearing ‘Mr Brightside’ non-stop for what felt like millennia, and in truth, hearing those repetitions of “ba, ba, ba… SO GOOD, SO GOOD!” over and over again at sporting fixtures beyond just national team games has taken the magic out of it at times.
Perhaps it’s just a case of saturation in certain settings and songs simply being overplayed – FIFA’s co-hosts over in the US certainly helped see to that when it came to ‘Wonderwall’ for a long time.
On the other hand, it feels like we’ve now come full circle; singing those famous lyrics at the top of our lungs in a sea of Mancs and fans travelling from all over to Heaton Park for Live ’25 last year felt better than ever, and like we’d all remembered how great a tune it’s always been. So did this…
In fact, this felt so emotional that you’ve got people who aren’t even English praising both those on the pitch and up in the stands for the moment online.
Even the admittedly rather American Man vs Food himself, Adam Richman (though he does have British ancestry), felt compelled to write a moving response on social media: “Shut up. You’re the one that’s crying. Bravo, England.”
He’s far from the only one who was left bowled over by the atmosphere – us included.
What do you think? Is it time for a new go-to tournament anthem for the Three Lions moving forward?
Danny Jones -
27th September 2024 
