Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted that he is not certain as to whether Kevin De Bruyne will feature in the starting eleven in Sunday's epic clash with Chelsea. Recurrent injury spells have kept the Belgian playmaker out of the Spanish manager's side for a number of times this season.
Before the turn of the year, a pair of medial knee ligament injuries ruled the former Chelsea midfielder out of action. In his absence, Manchester City's Premier League title defense momentarily hit a snag following respective defeats to Crystal Palace and Leicester City.
The Citizens have since gained grounds on challengers Liverpool who have also dropped a few points in recent weeks. Nonetheless, Pep Guardiola seems reluctant to rush Kevin De Bruyne's full inclusion in his game plan although the upcoming encounter with Chelsea has the potential to have an effect on the title race.
"Maybe, yeah, it's quite possible, of course it's possible [De Bruyne may be rested]," Guardiola said at a news conference.
"Every player knows, maybe it is quite possible to play him, maybe it is quite possible not to.
"In the end we judge the players for absolutely who we believe they are, but there are top forms and there are moments when you are not in better condition.
"There are moments when the other team-mates are in better conditions than them. In football what you have done is the past, you have to do it again."
Fight until the end! pic.twitter.com/YlpVwdYzK6
— Kevin De Bruyne (@DeBruyneKev) January 31, 2019
De Bruyne came on as a substitute in Wednesday's meeting with Everton to set up Gabriel Jesus for Manchester City's second goal in the 2:0 win and Guardiola, as a result, commended the 27-year-old midfielder's input.
"We try to control the players. He played the previous two games, I preferred at Everton [for him to play a] few minutes," he explained.
"What I want from Kevin is to play the last five minutes he played as much as possible. He went out for five minutes, plus the extra time, and he was incredible.
"I want him to sustain that for a long time. I didn't want him [playing] games, games, games and Gundo [Ilkay Gundogan] has been on top form."
