Jack Grealish suffers frustrating pre-season injury

The Manchester City winger is a doubt for the Sunday's first game of the new Premier League campaign after a positive pre-season.

Transcript

00:00So Man City began the new season at the weekend beating Manchester United on penalties in

00:05the Community Shield but there was one notable absence from Pep Guardiola's squad and that

00:09was Jack Grealish, a player who of course has played all four matches in pre-season

00:13but was unavailable due to a slight knock. Now we don't think it's a particularly severe

00:18injury and we don't expect him to be out for a long time but he certainly is a doubt for

00:21the Chelsea game upcoming this weekend and perhaps even the Ipswich game in a week's

00:26time and it's a real blow for Grealish who of course has had a very disappointing summer

00:30where he missed out in the Euros squad for Gareth Southgate and as a result came back

00:34to pre-season really fired up, wanted to make an immediate impact at the start of this season,

00:39spoke about having a bit of a head start on the likes of Jeremy Doku, Phil Foden in the

00:45wide areas, Savino as well and Bernardo Silva, the players who tend to play in the wide areas

00:52and Grealish I suppose he was really hoping to hit the ground running ahead of this new

00:55campaign and Pep Guardiola was praising his impact in pre-season friendlies, it's what

00:59makes his absence and this knock a particularly big blow, especially because Doku came in

01:04and played on the left against United, played really well I thought, Oscar Bob looks like

01:08a shoo-in at the moment to play on the right hand side, how well he's playing throughout

01:12pre-season and in the opening game and it means for Grealish as I say, just this campaign

01:16that we all thought he was going to, you know, he's come back fit and firing, really motivated

01:21and spoke about putting the heartbreak I suppose of that Euros emission behind him but the

01:26first opportunity to play he's unavailable to start and it means that he just starts

01:32the season off on a really bad note for him and it means that all the anticipation building up

01:36to this, suddenly he's a little bit of a setback, it allows us to say those teammates to gain a

01:42bit of an advantage on him as well and Grealish, I mean he obviously ended last season in not

01:47particularly good form, he didn't play in any of the last four Manchester City games and he's not

01:52always played at his best since he has joined the club from Aston Villa three years ago in that £100

01:57million sign and that's why as I say, after three years there's so much hope going into this

02:01campaign. Now he could well be available against Chelsea and if he is, I think he will start

02:05because he is certainly fitter than Jeremy Doku at this stage of pre-season but if he's not, it

02:10just will allow the other players to play, build up their fitness while Grealish's fitness decreases

02:15and it means that that advantage is going ahead of the new season. It's a big campaign

02:19for Grealish, it does feel like a make or break season for him, his opportunity I suppose to

02:23really establish himself in Guardiola's squad and we will of course have to see how he gets

02:27on throughout the next nine months.