Maresca Confirms Antoine Semenyo Faces Eight-Week Absence after suffering a knee injury

Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has revealed that Antoine Semenyo will be sidelined for approximately eight weeks after suffering a knee injury. The winger sustained the problem late in City’s 3-2 Premier League win over Ipswich Town, a result that extended the club’s winning start to seven matches.

Scans carried out on Sunday clarified the extent of the damage. Speaking at his pre-match press conference ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League fixture against AEK Athens at the Etihad Stadium, Maresca said the prognosis was better than initially feared. “The rest are more or less okay. The only one that will be out for probably eight weeks is Antoine,” he stated. “In the first moment we expected an even worse injury so we were more worried. After yesterday’s scan we feel much better because it’s not so big like we expected. It could be eight weeks. Now in this moment the most important thing for him is his recovery. When he is back around December it will be like a new player in terms of energy.”

Semenyo had been viewed as one of the players capable of operating as a striker to give Erling Haaland a rest when required. Maresca acknowledged the setback but stressed that alternatives exist. “First of all, to lose Antoine or any player for us is not good,” he said. “In terms of Erling, we said we can use Antoine as a nine but we have different players that we are going to try to find a new solution. We will see. At the moment it’s Erling. Why do we need to think about a different nine when Erling is there? If something happens and we need a different plan or different nine, we will see.”

Haaland himself took a knock after scoring twice against Ipswich. Maresca indicated the Norway international remains a possibility for the AEK game. “He can be available. We’ll see. We have a session now and we have some doubts after Sunday’s game. He was quite good yesterday. Better. So we’ll see today. Replacing Erling is always difficult. We have some different options and we’ll see tomorrow. It depends a little bit on the gameplan and also there is a chance he can be available tomorrow.”

Other squad members, including Matheus Nunes, Nico O’Reilly and Mateo Kovačić, were described as largely fine. City face AEK Athens in their third Champions League league-phase match of the season, with kick-off at 20:00 UK time. The club will look to continue a strong domestic start while managing the absence of Semenyo and monitoring Haaland’s readiness.