Manchester City The winger Antoine Semenyo has been ruled out for eight weeks, Enzo Maresca has confirmed.
Semenyo was left on the bench for Saturday’s 3-2 win at home to Ipswich but came on as a substitute for Jeremy Doku with 13 minutes remaining only to pick up a lower leg problem.
Maresca revealed the problem was not muscular and confirmed the Ghana international is set for a long spell on the sidelines.
Speaking ahead of Tuesday night’s home game with AEK Athens in the Champions League, the City manager said: “At first we expected an even worse injury, so we were more worried, but after the scan yesterday we feel much better because it’s not as big as we expected.
“It could be eight weeks. So right now the most important thing for him is to recover and also when he comes back, probably around December, we’ll have a new player in terms of energy.
“It’s a collateral (lower leg injury), something like that. It’s not a muscle problem, it’s not a muscle problem.”
Semenyo hit for City and Haaland
The setback is not ideal for Maresca as he struggles with a way to try and give star striker Erling Haaland a break. Haaland is also struggling to reach full fitness and is touch and go for the AEK game.
Semenyo is one of the few players in City’s squad who can play up front, but Maresca says he has other options.
“First of all, losing Antonine or any player for us is not good,” he added.
“So regarding Erling (Haaland), we said we can use Antoine as a new player, but we also have different players that we will try and find new solutions.
“We’ll see. It’s Erling for now, why should we think of a different new one when Erling is there?
“Then if something happens, we need a different plan or a brand new one. There’s also a chance it could be available tomorrow. We’ll see.”
We have to win games: Maresca, City coach
City are in the midst of a frenetic run of games, but Maresca has insisted they will not be taking AEK lightly.
He said: “It’s a massive game, tomorrow for us. It’s a Champions League matchunfortunately we lost the last one, we have to win games and we will try to win the game with our best players at the moment.”
Maresca had a brief spell in Greek football, as a player for Olympiacos in the 2009/10 season.
“It’s a Champions League game, a different competition, but the ambition has to be the same, to try to win games and again,” he said. “I had a year of experience there (in Greece). As I said a few conferences ago, it’s nice because it’s very hot, every game, home, away, but it was a good experience.”
Manchester City in the Champions League this season
September 8: Porto (a) – Won 2-0
October 14: PSG (h) – lost 3-2
October 20: AEK Athens (h)
November 4: RB Leipzig (a)
November 24: Naples (h)
December 8: Barcelona (a)
January 20: target (a)
January 27: Sporting CP (h)
