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Man City confirm huge injury blow before Aston Villa and Erling Haaland could make it worse

Enzo Maresca has issued an update ahead of Manchester City matches against AEK Athens and Villa

Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca during a press conference at the City Football Academy, Manchester. Picture date: Monday October 19, 2026.
Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca during a press conference

Manchester City winger Antoine Semenyo has been ruled out for around two months with a knee injury, manager Enzo Maresca has revealed.

The Ghana international suffered the problem in the latter stages of Saturday's Premier League victory over Ipswich, having only entered the game as a 77th-minute substitute.

Maresca admitted the club were actually relieved the problem was not more serious, with the issue proving to be collateral damage around the knee rather than a major ligament rupture.

City boss Maresca said: "In the first moment we expected an even worse injury, so we were more worried, but after the scan we feel much better.

"It is not so big like we expected. It could be eight weeks. Now the most important thing is to recover it.

"When he is back, probably around December, we will have a new player."

Semenyo's absence could be more keenly felt if top scorer Erling Haaland does not prove his fitness for Tuesday's Champions League clash against AEK Athens or beyond, with Aston Villa welcoming City to Villa Park in the Premier League on Saturday.

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Semenyo has been considered the most obvious alternative to Haaland as centre-forward since the departure of Omar Marmoush to Tottenham in the summer.

Haaland scored twice against Ipswich but was limping by the end of the game after taking a blow to the foot.

Maresca is hoping the Norwegian will be able to feature.

"There's a chance he could be available," Maresca said at a press conference. "We will see.

"To replace Erling is always difficult, but we have some different options.

"We said that we can use Antoine as a nine, but also we have different players that we are going to try to find a new solution with.

"But at the moment it's Erling. Why do we need to think of a different nine if Erling is there?"

Matheus Nunes, Mateo Kovacic and Nico O'Reilly also suffered knocks against Ipswich, but Maresca said they were "more or less all OK".

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