Man City suffer Kyle Walker injury blow with England World Cup spot doubted

Pep Guardiola does not know whether Kyle Walker will be fit for the World Cup after confirming he will be out for weeks with an abdominal injury.

Walker was substituted in the first half of the derby and has not trained since for the Blues, with the Manchester City manager explaining after the 5-0 win over FC Copenhagen that he expects the England defender to be out for "a while". Guardiola was cagey about the injury and suggested the club may make a statement on the problem in subsequent days, only indicating that he would be out for weeks rather than months before being unable to confirm if he would be fit in time to head to Qatar with England.

The news is a huge blow to the player, who will have been expecting to play a significant role in another major tournament under Gareth Southgate if he had stayed clear of injuries. England will have to adapt if they are unable to pick him.

City will suffer more immediately, with Kyle Walker and Joao Cancelo their only two senior full-backs in the squad. Sergio Gomez has made a bright impression since signing from Anderlecht in the summer, while Guardiola turned to youngsters Josh Wilson-Esbrand and Rico Lewis in the second half against Copenhagen as he considers the options he has available to him in the upcoming weeks.

"With the problems we have, Kyle will be out for a while and we don’t have many options at left-back or right-back. Rico showed me again that we can rely on him perfectly," said the manager.