Bernardo Silva Sent Home Injured From Portugal Duty

Manchester City’s midfield maestro Bernardo Silva has been sent home today from International Duty with Portugal

Cast your mind back to Pep Guardiola’s first season in charge of Manchester City back in 2016/17 and our jaunt in the UEFA Champions League was brought to a premature end by the marauding Monaco side, who undid our gung ho attacking at the Etihad. As we slumped to being knocked out of the erstwhile favourite competition of Guardiola, we were treated to a number of stand out performances by players none of us had ever heard of.

We marvelled at the rangy pace and crossing ability of the powerful left back, Benjamin Mendy, but our undoing was by Bernardo Silva. Here was a slip of a thing who seemed to spend his time in the half spaces between our defensive lines, continually picking our pockets and turning our world class midfield into innocent and ineffective bystanders.

It was not a surprise to anyone who witnessed that game of irrepressible counter attacking that Manchester City immediately tried to sign the master of their demise, Bernardo. This is a seemingly common occurrence for Guardiola. If a player impresses at first hand then they are treated as scouted and marked for future attention.

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Upon joining Manchester City, Bernardo took some time to acclimatise to the pace and power of the English Premier League. I was worried he was too slight to withstand the mythical physical onslaught of Tuesday evenings away at Stoke. His initial settling in was also disrupted by some niggling injuries, which removed him from having the benefit of repetition.

Nevertheless he looked a busy player, whom Guardiola seemed to deploy on the wing, mainly when we were attempting to manage a result out. Bernardo has some silky skills and has earned the nickname “bubblegum” for his uncanny ability of close control. So Guardiola used him to run the clock down in matches, holding the ball.

This season though we have seen a different Bernardo. Whether the use of him in centre midfield was always part of the tactical master plan being coached by Guardiola, or whether it was a lucky happenstance driven by injury to other key players is unclear. What you can say with some confidence is that this year Bernardo has been consistently one of our stand out performers. So much so, that the news he has sustained an injury away on international duty has left Manchester City fans nursing some concerns.

For Manchester City in all competitions this season, Bernardo has played 17 times, scoring 5 goals and assisting 4 times. So a total of 9 goal interactions in 17 games is an excellent return and its clear he will be missed from Manchester City’s starting line up.

Right now there has been no official confirmation of the extent of the injury other than a statement confirming his withdrawal from the Portugal squad for tomorrows match against Poland. In the last international window Bernardo was sent home from Portugal following a slight groin strain so its clear Portugal are quite cautious in their approach. That injury was treated back in Manchester and did not result in any missed games.

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This time Manchester City fans will all be hoping again that Bernardo will be back in action very quickly – he will be needed against a resurgent West Ham United team in the next Premier League game away at the weekend, followed by tricky looking match away to Lyon the following Tuesday.