Kevin De Bruyne will undergo a late fitness test ahead of Manchester City’s Premier league clash against Liverpool on Thursday night, it has been confirmed.
Pep Guardiola revealed at his media conference at lunchtime today (Wednesday), as quoted by the official City Twitter account, that the Belgian playmaker trained today but he remains a major doubt for the Etihad Stadium showdown.
PEP ? Happy new year everyone.
@DeBruyneKev trained today – he is much better – but we will check again tomorrow.
— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 2, 2019
Jurgen Klopp is in no doubt as to the significance of De Bruyne to City, hailing him as “a world class player” who is “unbelievably influential” for the Premier League champions.
Klopp: "De Bruyne is an outstanding player. Unbelievably influential, a world class player and he looks like a humble person. I expected that he would play."
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) January 2, 2019
OPINION
It’s hard to dispute Klopp’s gushing praise of De Bruyne, one of the outstanding half dozen players in the Premier League along with the likes of Mohamed Salah, Eden Hazard, David Silva, Harry Kane and Virgil van Dijk. The City playmaker has had a stop-start season after his extensive exertions for Belgium at the World Cup, starting just one Premier League match among his nine appearances to date. De Bruyne missed City’s weekend win at Southampton with a knock and it is not guaranteed he will be available to face Liverpool, even though Klopp has claimed he expects the conductor of the City orchestra to play. Perhaps a place on the bench is more likely for De Bruyne, who has been eased back into action after missing most of the opening three months of the campaign with knee ligament damage. One thing is for sure; Liverpool would not want to face a fit and firing De Bruyne.