Guardiola confirms De Bruyne is ready to return
Kevin De Bruyne will be available to start in Manchester City's scuffle with Burnley on Saturday, manager Pep Guardiola confirmed on Friday, but he might not be able to play the full match.
The Belgian hasn't played since City's season-opening win at Arsenal after suffering an injury to his right knee in training.
PEP: I don't know if he is able to play 90 minutes. He's trained well last two weeks.
— Manchester City (@ManCity) October 19, 2018
He's such an important player for us. Whenever a player is out, I like it when they come back - we will be stronger.
De Bruyne, 27, has been the club's Player of the Year for two of the past three seasons, and he was particularly instrumental during City's record-breaking 2017-18 Premier League campaign, scoring eight goals and recording 16 assists. He narrowly missed out on the PFA Player of the Year award, which was given to Mohamed Salah.
Guardiola provided further updates on his squad during Friday's press conference. Fabian Delph is now fit after sitting out the past four games, but Ilkay Gundogan faces a spell of two or three weeks on the sidelines with an undisclosed injury.
Burnley's visit will see Joe Hart return to Beswick after leaving City permanently in the summer. The goalkeeper won two Premier League titles and three domestic cups after joining from Shrewsbury Town in 2006, but fell out of favor early into Guardiola's tenure. The 31-year-old was on loan with Torino and then West Ham United over the previous two terms.