Manchester City’s Benjamin Mendy Injured Again

On Sunday Manchester City explained that Benjamin Mendy was not in the match day squad having suffered another injury.

It must be an incredibly difficult place for Manchester City full back Benjamin Mendy to be in at the moment. The constant battle to return to full fitness and resurrect his career as a top flight left back must weigh heavy upon him at every turn and he must feel that with every step forward he takes, he is forced backwards.

Quite how Mendy is able to focus and work and apply himself to the lonely task of recovery is unimaginable. There would be a million moments where if I was faced with a similar recovery period again, where I would simply chuck in the towel and call it a day.

Thankfully Mendy is made of stronger stuff and that is why he has more World Cup Winners Medals than I have.

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Yet, Mendy’s injury record makes thoroughly depressing reading for a player who joined and made an immediate explosive impact. He is such a critical player for the way in which we play and to have been robbed of his abilities for so long has taken so much away from our team.

Mendy joined City back on July 24 2017 and since then there have been 805 days in total – and he has been injured for 493 days out of them, missing so far 87 games in 2 seasons as a consequence. As I said before, quite how Mendy is managing to still apply himself to the recovery is truly impressive.

The current injury has been stated to be a hamstring and that is not uncommon when players return after a knee injury and a lengthy lay off. So far City have not given an indication of the full extent of the problem or the likely recovery time, but in many ways this injury feels particularly cruel as he was just beginning to return and trust in his body.

He should console himself with the fact that despite his stuttering appearances he has a hugely impressive number of honours he has won – Premier League x 2, FA Cup Winner, Carabao Cup Winner, Charity Shield Winner, French Champion and World Cup Winner.

In fact there is only the Champions League Trophy he has not won and here’s hoping Mendy can return to fitness and play an integral role in leading us towards a major European honour.