Pep Guardiola has confirmed that Kevin De Bruyne missed Manchester City’s 1-0 win over Brentford due to concerns over his hamstring injury.
De Bruyne has missed five months of the season after he required surgery for a ruptured hamstring last August.
The Belgium international returned last month and has already made a significant impact in City’s games with two goals and six assists in eight appearances.
However, De Bruyne was named on the bench for City’s Premier League clash with Brentford on Tuesday night and did not take part in the warm-up before the game.
The midfielder then sat on the substitutes’ bench for the entire game and did not warm-up on the sideline at any point as Erling Haaland’s second-half goal sealed the 1-0 victory for Guardiola’s side.
When asked about De Bruyne after City’s win at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday evening, Guardiola said: ‘Today we can’t use Kevin because he has a niggle in his hamstring and we didn’t want to take any risks.
‘He’s okay, he’s okay. It’s just more caution and prevention than anything.
‘He didn’t feel comfortable, the doctor said it’s a little bit of a risk, so we said, ‘okay’, after five months off we didn’t take any risks about that over him.’