Enzo Maresca put a hard number on it at his Monday press conference ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League tie with AEK Athens. Antoine Semenyo, who limped off at full-time after coming on as a substitute in Saturday’s 3-2 win over Ipswich Town, will not be back until December.
Scans ultimately returned better news than City had feared, but the Ghana international’s absence still eats through a run of fixtures where Maresca would have expected to lean on him.
Maresca lays out the timeline
Maresca was unusually specific about the length of the lay-off.
“The only one that will be out for probably eight weeks is Antoine,” the manager told reporters.
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“In the first moment we expected an even worse injury, so we were more worried. After yesterday’s scan we feel much better because it’s not so big like we expected.”
“It could be eight weeks. Now in this moment the most important thing for him is his recovery. When he is back around December, it will be like a new player in terms of energy.”
A hole where Haaland’s cover should be
Semenyo was signed from Bournemouth in January for a reported £64m, and ten months in he has become the player Maresca turns to when Erling Haaland needs a break, a rest in the second half or an injury contingency. Both of his goals this season came in the same match against Sunderland.
That cover is what City lose. Haaland was himself hobbling at the end of the Ipswich game with a suspected ankle problem, which briefly put Tuesday’s European night in doubt before Maresca talked the concern down.
“He can be available, we will see,” Maresca said of Haaland.
“He was quite good yesterday, better. We will see today.”
The fixtures Semenyo misses
An eight-week absence from an injury suffered on 17 October runs City through much of their Champions League league phase and the busiest stretch of their domestic calendar. Among the fixtures Semenyo will miss, per Sports Mole, are the Champions League meetings with AEK Athens, RB Leipzig and Napoli, the Premier League trip to Aston Villa on 25 October, the home game against Chelsea, and the EFL Cup fourth-round tie with Brighton.
Barcelona at home on 8 December sits on the edge of his projected return; Maresca did not single that one out.
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For now the manager says the rest of his squad is largely intact. Matheus Nunes, Nico O’Reilly and Mateo Kovacic are, in Maresca’s phrase, “more or less all ok”. The first test without Semenyo comes at the Etihad against AEK Athens on Tuesday night.
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