Man City's Antoine Semenyo out for about eight weeks; Haaland a doubt for AEK Athens game

Manchester City forward Antoine Semenyo will “probably be out for eight weeks”, manager Enzo Maresca said at his news conference on Monday 19 October, BBC Sport reported. Goal and The Independent also reported the eight-week estimate.

“At first we expected an even worse injury, but after the scan we feel much better. It is not a muscle problem,” Maresca said, according to BBC Sport. Goal reported that Maresca described it as a lateral collateral ligament injury to the knee and said he expected Semenyo back in December.

Semenyo was one of five City players hurt in Saturday’s 3-2 Premier League win over Ipswich Town. Maresca said Matheus Nunes, Mateo Kovacic and Nico O’Reilly were “more or less OK”, BBC Sport reported.

On Erling Haaland, who scored twice against Ipswich, Maresca said: “He can be available but we’ll see. We have a session. We had some doubts after the game but he was quite good yesterday.” The Manchester Evening News reported that Haaland was not seen at the part of City’s training session that was open to the media.

Asked about Phil Foden playing in attack instead of Haaland, Maresca said: “Phil can be one of the solutions, but not the only one… At the moment, the number nine is Erling.”

City host AEK Athens at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday at 8pm UK time (7pm Tuesday GMT), BBC Sport said. City lost 4-2 at home to Paris Saint-Germain in their previous Champions League game, according to UEFA.

See also: our report on City’s win over Ipswich.