Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says that Kyle Walker remains a doubt for the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final tie against Real Madrid.

The 33-year-old returned to the substitutes bench for the 5-1 win over Luton Town at the weekend, having spent the best part of a month on the treatment table with a hamstring problem. However, he didn’t get any minutes on Saturday and, asked whether Walker could feature on Wednesday, Guardiola was cautious, suggesting that he didn’t to risk the fullback suffering a recurrence of the same injury:

“He feels much better but he was injured, so now we will see in the next days. But he is good, he feels good. Maybe he can help with minutes because it is a ‘final’ but I don’t want to lose him for a long time if he gets injured. He will train a bit more now and we will decide.”

“I know how important Kyle is against the players from Real Madrid. But he was not in Madrid and Manu [Akanji], Josko [Gvardiol], John [Stones], Ruben [Dias] played incredibly well. We will see.”

Walker’s defensive qualities could prove invaluable

As Guardiola mentions, the England international has performed well against Real in the past and he has proven more than capable of marking the tricky Vinicius Jr.

After City conceded three goals at the Bernabeu, Guardiola will be very keen to have Walker back in the mix but his lack of football in recent weeks does present a dilemma.

City’s medical staff have a decision to make

It is not always easy to determine when a player has fully recovered from a muscular injury. The general rule of thumb is that, the longer you give someone to recover, the lower the chances of a recurrence.

There is a very real danger that Walker is brought back too early. The player and the manager will have to decide, in conjunction with the medical team, what the best course of action is. They may opt to keep him on the bench and wait until the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea on Saturday to give him a proper run-out.