Rodri Faces Injury Setback Ahead of Manchester City Season
Rodri faces the prospect of starting Manchester City’s season not in midfield, but in a treatment room – and possibly an operating theatre.
Fresh from lifting the World Cup with Spain in New Jersey and being named the tournament’s outstanding player, the 30-year-old is now confronting a back injury serious enough that surgery is on the table. The issue is expected to keep him out at the beginning of the new campaign, cutting short the momentum of a summer in which he looked back to his imperious best.
Only days ago, Rodri captained Spain to a 1-0 win over Argentina in the final, dictating the game with the authority that once made him the heartbeat of City’s treble-winning side. The Golden Ball in his hands felt like a full-circle moment after two seasons scarred by setbacks. Instead, it may mark the start of another long spell of rehabilitation.
This latest concern drops into a medical file already thick with trouble. His problems began in brutal fashion in September 2024, when he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in a 2-2 draw with Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium. That injury wrecked his season, ruling him out for the bulk of the campaign just as City were trying to recalibrate after years of dominance.
He returned only to be struck down again at the Club World Cup last July. Hamstring and groin issues followed across the most recent season, each one chipping away at his rhythm, his minutes, his aura of indestructibility. In the league he managed just 17 Premier League starts, a stark figure for a player once considered almost ever-present under Pep Guardiola.
The timing of the back problem could hardly be more delicate. Rodri is entering the final year of his contract, which expires next June, and his future at City is far from clear. He has long spoken of a desire to play again in Spain, and those close to the situation believe a move to Real Madrid would be his preferred route if he returns home. For now, though, Madrid have not advanced beyond admiration. No formal bid, no hard push.
Inside City, the stance is very different. New manager Enzo Maresca wants him at the centre of his project. For a coach trying to imprint his ideas on a dressing room used to Guardiola’s exacting standards, losing the side’s most reliable metronome – on and off the pitch – would be a brutal early blow. Maresca needs continuity; Rodri, fully fit, offers exactly that.
What he cannot control is the toll of the last two years. Rodri himself hinted at the emotional weight he has been carrying when he spoke after Spain’s World Cup triumph.
“For me, it’s been a very tough time,” he said, reflecting on the sequence of injuries that have stalked his prime. “I just want the new generations to see my example as an opportunity. When you go down, you can rise again. This is my philosophy for my entire life. Of course, sometimes things go well, things go wrong, but always the positiveness.”
That mindset has carried him back to the summit of the international game. Now it will be tested again in the quieter, lonelier grind of recovery, scans and decisions about surgery.
City, meanwhile, must plan for a start to the season without the man who once made them feel almost bulletproof. With his contract ticking down and his body demanding answers, the next few months will not just shape Rodri’s fitness – they may decide where he plays the next chapter of his career.
