Pep Guardiola reveals Man City’s World Cup plans and Kyle Walker & Kalvin Phillips latest

Pep Guardiola has said he doesn’t intend to travel to the World Cup in Qatar later this month and explained what his plans are for Manchester City’s squad during that period.

The majority of the senior team will be involved with their respective nations at the competition, although the likes of Riyad Mahrez and Erling Haaland won’t travel with Norway and Alergia not qualifying.

Speaking on Tuesday, Guardiola revealed he is hoping to bring his squad to Abu Dhabi during the World Cup for some warm weather training, although insisted no definitive plans have been made yet.

“We will have one or two weeks off and after maybe we [will go] to Abu Dhabi, maybe we will train and try and organise a friendly game for the rhythm,” said the City manager.

“It is not definite but we are going to train to come back on the 28 December [against Leeds]. We will be ready as much as possible. We try. Take a break, have training there with the good weather and maybe we are going to do it.

“I would say right after we come back from 10 days off after Brentford [on 12 November]. Maybe we restart a few days here and then we travel there. It’s not 100 percent confirmed, but we are going to try.”

Latest on Walker and Phillips

Guardiola was also asked about the fitness of Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips, both of whom are major fitness doubts for England ahead of the World Cup.

“He [Phillips] is doing partial training session with the team, not contact yet,” the 51-year-old explained. “We’ll see his evolution. I know how important is the World Cup but I don’t use a player I don’t think is ready.

Quizzed on Walker, Guardiola added: "I’m impressed with how quick his recovery is, but still a bit late compared to Kalvin."

The former Barcelona manager also said he thinks it is ’likely’ both players will recover in time for the World Cup. “For the way they recover, yeah,” he said ahead of City’s clash with Sevilla.

“I don’t know the intentions of Gareth [Southgate] but I think he speaks with the players quite regularly and the doctors. They know better than me. But what I hear in the dressing room is they can be ready.”