LONDON, Sept 28 — Manchester City midfielder Rodri will miss the rest of the season with a serious knee injury, dealing a huge blow to their hopes of winning a fifth straight Premier League title.

City manager Pep Guardiola said the Spain international, who suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in last week’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal, had gone under the knife on Friday.

"He had surgery this morning, ACL and some meniscus” he said. "So, next season he will be here. This season is over.”

Rodri is one of City’s most important players and his loss will be keenly felt by Guardiola, who is also seeking to regain the Champions League crown.

The City boss, speaking on the eve of his team’s Premier League match against Newcastle, said it was the worst news possible, underlining the importance of the defensive midfielder he has called "irreplaceable”.

"We have to do it as a team and find a way to play during a lot of months without an important player for us,” he said.

"Everybody knows it. Speedy recovery and next season he will compete against them.

"We are stronger with him, we’re stronger with Nathan Ake, we are strong with Oscar Bobb.

"All the injuries we did not want it, but football happens.”

Rodri played a key role as City held off Arsenal to win a fourth straight Premier League title last season and was named player of the tournament at Euro 2024 as Spain emerged triumphant.

Each of City’s past four Premier League defeats have all come when the former Atletico Madrid player has not featured in the side.

The 28-year-old, touted as a potential Ballon d’Or winner, is unbeaten in his past 52 Premier League appearances, a run stretching back to February 2023.

Guardiola, whose team are top of the Premier League, said he had a number of alternatives among his group of "magnificent players”, including Mateo Kovacic, a like-for-like replacement.

"Gundo (Ilkay Gundogan) can play in that position. John Stones and Manu (Manuel Akanji) have played in that position. So we have an alternative to do it,” he said.

Guardiola was asked whether City would dip into the transfer market in January.

"We’ll talk today with Txiki (Begiristain, the director of football), we’ll see how it’s going on,” he said.

"It’s closed until January, so we’ll have time and see potential problems we have, and after we’ll see.”

Rodri, who joined City in 2019, had already had a frustrating start to the season, missing City’s first four games, including the Community Shield, after suffering a hamstring injury.

Only last week he joined a host of high-profile players to speak out about the ever-increasing fixture workload facing the game’s top stars, and said he thought players could be "close” to striking because of the overloaded calendar.

City will also be without Belgium midfielder Kevin De Bruyne for their trip to Newcastle as he continues to recover from injury. — AFP