World Cup semi-final runs leave Maresca without six key City players for pre-season

Enzo Maresca faces a significant pre-season headache after at least six Manchester City players were ruled out of the club’s summer preparations, with their nations all reaching the World Cup semi-finals in the United States.

FIFPro guidelines recommend four weeks of rest following a major tournament, and with the World Cup final falling just four weeks before the Community Shield against Arsenal in Cardiff, those six players are almost certain to miss every pre-season fixture. Maresca will begin training with available players in Manchester from Monday 20 July before the squad travels to Asia for three friendlies in the first nine days of August.

The identities of those absent make the situation particularly awkward. New £116m signing Elliot Anderson and left-back Nico O’Reilly were among City’s heaviest users of minutes across the 2025/26 Premier League season. O’Reilly logged roughly 3,000 more minutes in all competitions than the previous campaign as he established himself as a first-team regular, while Anderson’s playing time increased by over 50 per cent at Nottingham Forest before his move to the Etihad.

Anderson’s delayed arrival is compounded by the situation surrounding Rodri. The Spain midfielder is expected to undergo surgery after the World Cup — and with Spain progressing to the last four, that operation remains pending. The prospect of beginning the season without both Anderson and Rodri, the two players Maresca had identified as options at the No.6 position, leaves a conspicuous gap in his midfield planning, particularly following Bernardo Silva’s summer exit.

Marc Guehi, Rayan Cherki, and James Trafford are also among the six Blues who have yet to conclude their 2025/26 campaigns, further thinning the squad available to Maresca during the critical early weeks of preparation.

Manchester City sent more players to the World Cup than any other club, and three of the four remaining nations contain at least one Etihad player. Internally, that level of representation will be a source of pride — Julian Alvarez lifted the trophy as a City player in 2022 — but for Maresca, it translates directly into a compressed window to implement his ideas before the competitive season begins.