Pep Guardiola has warned Manchester City’s ageing core that they may need to leave the club if they are physically unable to cope with the increasing workload.

City have been plagued by an injury crisis all year and have recently lost centre-back duo Manuel Akanji and John Stones to fresh fitness issues, highlighting why the club parted with the best part of £65m to sign both Vitor Reis and Abdukodir Khusanov in the January transfer window.

As well as injuries, City have also had to contend with an ageing core – 11 of his squad will be over 30 years old in September – which Guardiola does not believe can compete against younger, fresher side.

For those players who cannot reliably play multiple games every week, Guardiola acknowledged it may be time for them to move on.

“That is a reality,” Guardiola confessed. “We have to sit down with the doctors, with physios, with the players, with the agents, and be clear that some of them cannot sustain every three days, every month, every two months, playing every three, four days.

“So this is the reality. There’s one more year, [then] a World Cup.”

Singled out for a line of questioning was Kevin De Bruyne. While widely regarded as one of the best midfielders in the world, the injury-plagued 33-year-old was named on the bench for the recent Champions League defeat to Real Madrid and has started just 11 times in the Premier League all season.

Asked why De Bruyne did not start against City, Guardiola bluntly admitted: “It’s just a decision. It’s on what I have seen – for a few reasons.

“Also Jeremy [Doku] didn’t play – the last game he played was Ipswich, he was unbelievable, and then afterwards he was injured. But maybe for the demands of the way we need to play, for the absence of strength that we have and physicality, we need more control and not up and down.”

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