Manchester City striker Aguero confirms successful knee surgery

Sergio Aguero underwent surgery on a knee injury on Wednesday, with Pep Guardiola waiting to find out when he will have the Manchester City striker available.

The 32-year-old is currently in Barcelona and has been operated on by specialist Dr Ramon Cugat, who has performed surgery on various City players, including Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Benjamin Mendy and Aymeric Laporte in the past.

The Argentina international confirmed on Twitter that he has had his operation and is feeling good.

"Everything went well, and I'll soon begin recovery. A big thanks to Dr Cugat and his team – and to all of you for your support," he tweeted.

A timescale has not been put on Aguero's return and he has not yet been ruled out of the Champions League restart in August.

"Once he finishes the surgery maybe we’ll know exactly the time when he can come back to join us and play with us," Guardiola told his news conference ahead of Thursday's clash with Chelsea.

"I don’t know right now [about the Champions League]. After surgery we’ll know exactly what the doctor sees and exactly what he has done. He will tell us more about the time to come back."

The injury leaves City with only Gabriel Jesus as a recognised striker although Guardiola insists he has options including Raheem Sterling and Gundogan, who has been more recently used as a defensive midfielder.

"We don’t have any doubts about Gabriel," the City boss added. "The only doubt we have is because not one single player with the preparation we have can play every three days.

"We have Gabriel. Raheem can play in this position, even Gundogan and Bernardo [Silva] can play in this position. We have different options. Not like a striker but we can use them."

City face their third game in eight days on Thursday since the return of football following the shutdown enforced by the Covid-19 pandemic when they travel to Chelsea.

Guardiola made eight changes between the victories over Arsenal and Burnley and is expected to rotate again for the trip to Stamford Bridge, but he admitted that he will make changes with the trip to Newcastle on Sunday in mind with the opportunity of defending the FA Cup becoming a priority as Liverpool run away with the league.

"We can’t deny that we have one eye on Newcastle," he said. "Chelsea and Liverpool are prestigious and important games but Newcastle is our game. A final for us.

"We have one eye on this but the other eye, the team selection depends on physical condition, the minutes they have played. We take a look a little bit at what is going to happen in the next games, not just Chelsea."