Nico O’Reilly has been sent back to Manchester City from international duty, handing Enzo Maresca an untimely injury concern before next Sunday’s trip to Anfield. The defender’s withdrawal was reported by the BBC after England’s 2-0 win over Czechia, and he now faces further assessment on an unspecified problem.
City head to Merseyside on the back of seven straight wins in all competitions, five of them in the Premier League. The momentum is there. The squad depth, perhaps, is about to be tested.
O’Reilly had played the full 90 minutes in England’s 3-2 defeat to Spain earlier in the break, a Nations League fixture that preceded the Czechia game. He has made five appearances for City this season, but his campaign has already been disrupted once — a back injury sustained in the warm-up before the 1-0 win over Coventry City forced him out of two matches. Now another issue, still unspecified, has cut short his time with the national team.
Maresca will address the media next Friday, and that press conference will be the first proper opportunity to learn the severity of the problem. Until then, City are left to monitor a player who has shown promise but has yet to string together a run of games.
Anfield awaits. Seven wins on the spin is a fine run, but Liverpool away has a habit of finding out where a squad really stands. If O’Reilly is unavailable, someone else steps in. That is the nature of a long season.