Rodri, the reigning Ballon d’Or holder and the heartbeat of Manchester City’s midfield, will go under the knife again. The surgery will keep him out of the opening weeks of City’s 2026-27 Premier League season.
A timeline of setbacks
The trouble started on September 22, 2024. Rodri went down with a right knee ACL tear during a match against Arsenal, the kind of injury that rewrites a season in a single moment.
He missed approximately 220 days. That translated to 51 games on the sideline for the 2024-25 campaign.
His return came in May 2025, later than initially hoped. Soft-tissue problems followed almost immediately, with groin and hamstring injuries cropping up in the months that followed. Those secondary issues limited his involvement heading into the 2025 Club World Cup.
