Pep Guardiola got his latest Champions League campaign off to a winning start but suffered yet another injury blow.
Already without a handful of frontline stars, the Manchester City boss sent Fernandinho on as a late substitute but the Brazilian soon hobbled off with a leg injury that looks likely to sideline him for over a month.
Guardiola said: "It's bad news. It was his leg and he will be out for four to six weeks.
"He will be out a long time. It's a big blow for us.
“It is a hectic schedule and we need all the players we can get.”
Kevin de Bruyne, Aymeric Laporte and Gabriel Jesus were among those missing from a 3-1 victory over Porto and one of the scorers, Ilkay Gundogan, has not long recovered from Covid.
And Guardiola admitted the injury and illness problems have been affecting his team’s fluency.
“But it is nice to win games struggling,” he said.
City went behind to a Luis Diaz goal before Sergio Aguero equalised from the penalty spot, Gundogan fired them ahead with a free-kick and Ferran Torres wrapped things up with a lovely third.
But Gundogan admitted City were finding it difficult to get any rhythm.
He explained: "If I'm being honest we are struggling at the moment.
"Fernandinho went off at the end and we have players playing in different positions.
“I am not 100 percent there because I had Covid, we are not all at the same moment.
"That is the challenge for this season, it's not going to end for a while.
“It's going to be difficult for Pep to pick an XI because players are going to be tired."
Fernandinho looks to have aggravated an old thigh problem but at least Guardiola confirmed De Bruyne and Laporte are expected to resume training on Thursday.
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