Kevin De Bruyne is used to his fair share of rough challenges but even the Belgian had to take a few minutes to recover from a collision with Lewis Cook on Thursday night.
De Bruyne was sent into action with half-an-hour left of Manchester City‘s clash against Bournemouth at the Etihad, with the EFL Cup tie poised at 1-1.
And as he and teammate Raheem Sterling wrested control of the game back from the visitors – Phil Foden scoring to make it 2-1 on the night – De Bruyne endured a whack to the head that looked as though it could trigger a concussion check.
The Belgian didn’t see Cherries defender Cook coming, and got the full force of a forearm in the back of his head in stoppage time.
The accident caused a delay as City’s medical staff attended to the playmaker, who eventually got to his feet to groggily see out the last few minutes.
De Bruyne may have been given the all clear to continue at the Etihad, but that doesn’t mean he won’t receive checks in the coming days, in order to ensure he is fit for City’s weekend Premier League tie with Leicester.
Indeed, it is unclear what the extent of De Bruyne’s injury was when his manager Pep Guardiola gave an update on Friday.
“[He] had a little bit distortion,” Guardiola said. “In general, yeah, feels good.”
Guardiola would not elaborate further, which suggests the manager hasn’t made up his mind over whether or not De Bruyne will start against Leicester on Sunday.
Premier League concussion protocol
Naturally, fans who have selected De Bruyne for their Fantasy Premier League teams are sweating over what to do with their player.
De Bruyne is one of the most expensive players in the fantasy football game and is included in over 40 per cent of teams. He earned 13 points from City’s 3-1 win over Wolves last week to kick on from last season, where he topped the FPL points charts with 251.
The decision, therefore, for many fantasy managers is whether or not to omit him from their squad this weekend.
And Guardiola’s comments are unlikely to have convinced many that De Bruyne is a sure-fire starter on Sunday.
But crucially, De Bruyne’s injury didn’t look as bad as that suffered by Eric Garcia during his collision with City goalkeeper Ederson back in June.
Garcia was immediately withdrawn from City’s clash with Arsenal and underwent concussion protocols that ruled him out for upcoming games.
FIFA’s Return to Play criteria advises professional players take six days off if they suffer a concussion, while non-pros should spend 19 days not doing sport.
Were De Bruyne be found to have suffered a concussion on Thursday then he would not only miss the Leicester game but also next Wednesday’s League Cup clash with Burnley.
But for now at appears as though the Belgium international will be available for action when City entertain the Foxes on Sunday afternoon, unless a fresh assessment over the weekend tells the City medical staff otherwise.
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2Sc5325
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