Kevin De Bruyne has spoken about the current situation at Manchester City and revealed players who "shouldn't be playing" have taken to the pitch in an unprecedented dire run of five straight losses.
On Saturday, the reigning champions suffered a fifth consecutive defeat at the hands of Spurs, who claimed a shock 4-0 triumph at the Etihad Stadium. It followed up a loss to the Ange Postecoglou's side in the Carabao Cup, as well as defeats to Bournemouth, Sporting and Brighton.
City find themselves eight points behind league leaders Liverpool after their worst run since the Stuart Pearce days and look like a shadow of the side which won a record-breaking four Premier League titles in a row under Pep Guardiola.
The absence of Ballon d'Or and midfield metronome Rodri has been felt after he suffered an ACL injury in September but City have been plagued by other injury problems in recent times.
And De Bruyne, who has been struggling with injuries once again, opened up on City players playing when they shouldn't have been amidst a packed medical area.
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Speaking in a press conference ahead of the visit of Feyenoord in the Champions League, De Bruyne revealed: "I’d say it’s been a bit chaotic before. I’ve seen so many people pass around the medical area, sports science, who’s playing, not playing.
“There’s been people playing who shouldn’t be playing, but played anyway with an injury…
“These games with Sporting, Brighton and Bournemouth was a bit all over the place. Before the Tottenham game, it seemed pretty much all right to me. Obviously then we had the defeat, so we just had yesterday which was a bit quiet. But then for the rest, I didn’t see too much change.”
De Bruyne suffered a groin injury against Brentford in September but ended up playing against Inter Milan four days later and spending two months on the sidelines after the problem was aggravated.
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According to the Daily Mail, he's been active in training for around four weeks but has only managed 38 minutes on the pitch. He could be in line for a return to a starting XI in Tuesday's Champions League clash.
"Every time I would shoot the ball I would get real, real pain," De Bruyne said on his injury.
"Everything with the nerves around it was creating pain in my groin. I was trying to find methods to get better, to get my power back but it took a long time. It only got better on Friday, I don't know why, I can't explain it."
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The 33-year-old is in tenth season with City but his contract is due to expire at the end of the current campaign and he has been linked to the MLS and Saudi Pro League.
Though there hasn't been much movement of late, De Bruyne is calm about the whole situation.
He admitted: "I had a conversation in the summer, but then I had the injury so I wasn't in the right frame of mind to talk about that. I need to be back on the pitch and be myself again. There's no rush, I don't feel uncomfortable, I'm not worried."
Topics: Kevin De Bruyne, Manchester City, Pep Guardiola
Josh Lawless