Benjamin Mendy starts for Manchester City

In what seems to have been an age, Benjamin Mendy finally returned from his loan spell to Injury FC, the French defender returned in sky blue. Playing in the U-23’s Premier League 2 game against United.

Playing 45 minutes of the first half the 23-year-old wing back, who has been out for almost seven months, made a couple of trademark runs down the wing. With the game coming less than 24 hours before the first team play Spurs, London may be too soon.

If all went well last night, he could certainly find himself in contention for the visit of Swansea next Sunday. Having ruptured his cruciate ligament against Crystal Palace back in September, next Sundays game will be one day shy of exactly seven months since he limped off.

Always present on Twitter, even with his injury, he has developed a relationship with Blues fans. His comic tweets, and opposition baiting has been embraced by the City faithful, who see him as one of their own.

It was only fitting that an announcement of his return also came via the social media platform.

Next: Mendy Heads To Barca For Scan

His return could just be the spark Pep Guardiola is looking for as we enter the final games of the season. Like a new signing, Pep hasn’t really been convinced of that left back coverage. Yes Fabian Delph, Zinchenko and Danilo have been played there, but none offered quite what we saw from Blue Mendy’s early games.

Being able to revert to his prefered tactic, with Walker now balanced with Mendy, could see the blues stop the rot of the last week. A double defeat from Liverpool and one against United came at the worst possible time of the season, and left City fans feeling quite deflated.

However, if Mendy can spark on the pitch as he did on Twitter, then we may still run across that finishing line rather than limping.