Champions League: Kyle Walker misses training session due to back problem
Manchester City's Kyle Walker greets fans at the end of the English Premier League soccer match between Brentford and Manchester City at the Gtech Community Stadium in London, Sunday, May 28, 2023. Credit: AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth
MANCHESTER, England — Manchester City defender Kyle Walker is confident he will be fit for Saturday's Champions League final despite struggling with a back problem in recent days.
The England international did not take part in City's open training session on Tuesday in preparation for the game against Inter Milan in Istanbul.
Walker looked in discomfort as he left the field late on in his team's FA Cup final win against Manchester United on Saturday.
But the 33-year-old full back said he expected to be available to help City in its bid to be crowned champions of Europe for the first time in its history.
“I’m completely fine, it’s just an extra day of recovery," he told Sky Sports News on Tuesday. “I’ve played a lot of minutes over the last number of weeks so the manager said, ‘Just stay inside and come Saturday you will be raring to go.'
“I won’t be missing the Champions League final for anything.”
Walker was a key figure as City advanced past Real Madrid in the semifinals with an outstanding performance against Vinicius Jr. in the second leg, which Pep Guardiola's team won 4-0.
Manchester City's Aymeric Laporte helped by team mate Kyle Walker after an injury during the English Premier League soccer match between Brentford and Manchester City at the Gtech Community Stadium in London, Sunday, May 28, 2023. Credit: AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth
Guardiola said Walker had been left out of Tuesday's training session as a precautionary measure.
“He has had a disturbance in his back,” the City manager said. “Yesterday he was not good, today he was a little bit better, but we didn’t want to take any risks. We will see what happens in the next days.”
City has already won the Premier League title and the FA Cup this season.
If it triumphs in the Champions League it will become only the second English team to win a treble of the three biggest trophies, emulating Manchester United's feat in 1999.
City is the overwhelming favorite to beat Inter, which finished third in the Italian league this season.
“We’re going to try to do our best and we know the final is how you behave in that specific 95 minutes, not history," said Guardiola. “It doesn’t count what you have done in the group stages or the Premier League or the FA Cup. We have to be better than them.”
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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
