Manchester, United Kingdom: Sergio Aguero has nothing to apologise for after going to Amsterdam for a pop concert on his day off from Manchester City, according to Pep Guardiola, even though he had no idea he was there.
The 29-year-old Argentina striker broke a rib after being involved in a car crash on his way back to the airport in the Dutch capital on Thursday night and will be sidelined for two-four weeks.
Guardiola only found out on Friday morning Aguero had travelled abroad for the concert starring Colombian singer Maluma but he insists the striker has no reason to say sorry and the accident was just an unfortunate part of life, comparing his misfortune to the loss of French international Benjamin Mendy to a knee injury.
“I didn’t speak with him. Why should he apologise to me? No. Mendy too?” said Guardiola.
“Sergio didn’t drive. I know a player who got injured off a broken glass in the kitchen and cut his finger — he was out two months. There. Life is life.”
Guardiola says he doesn’t want to stop his players from enjoying their down time, and what they get up to on their days off does not concern him although he added they have to make mature decisions.
“If they are fathers, they have a full responsibility on their shoulders on and off the pitch. They know what they have to do,” said Guardiola.
“I have a private life, a family. There are rules and ways to live between each other and that’s all. He’s strong enough.
“I don’t want to know what my players do. He travelled in a private jet so no problem.
“At the end, it’s fortunate the injury is not bad, he’s healthy.
‘Never reach the step’
“He’s alive. The most important thing is he’s ok. After that, he’s mature enough to know exactly what he has to do.”
However, City are now without their star striker — who has scored seven times in eight games for the club this season — for up to four weeks.
According to the manager, if City want to be considered as one of the top sides then they have to get on with the job and win in difficult circumstances.
Captain Vincent Kompany and Mendy have also been ruled out through injury, the French full-back looking at missing most of the season with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. But Guardiola is not going to use that as an excuse.
“We want to become a big club, I’ve been at two amazing clubs in my life, you have to overcome this situation,” said the Spaniard.
“If we start to complain we’ll never reach the step we want to take. “I prefer to play with men who are strong. I’d like to play with Sergio because we are strong with him.
“But he’s not there, no complaints. We’ll play the way we’d have done it with Sergio, Kompany, Mendy.
“We have to overcome these situations if you want to become a team that others consider big and say it doesn’t matter what happens.
“The big clubs do it — they overcome the difficult situations.
“If people are saying we can’t do it now, We’ll never reach what we want in the next five or six years.” — AFP
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