Kevin De Bruyne has opened up on his injury nightmare and admitted he is unsure about what the future holds for him at Manchester City.
De Bruyne, who turns 34 in June, is out of contract at City at the end of the season and has put talks over a potential new deal on hold until he gets back to full fitness.
The Belgium international has not started a game for City since Sept 18 and revealed that last Friday was the first time he had felt pain-free since then, with the player reluctant to make any definitive decisions over his future while he focuses on his recovery.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” said Bruyne, when asked if this could be his last season at City. “Obviously when I started the season I knew things would happen and talks would happen. But then I unfortunately had that thing [problem] against Brentford [in September]. So I’ve put basically everything [about my future] to the side.
“I was hoping to be out for a couple of days and it ended up being eight or nine weeks. So for the moment I’d rather get better first and see how I am and the rest will come. I’m not really too obsessed with things right now.
“There’s not been a lot of talks. I just want to play good football again. Talks will come. If no talks come, then it’s my last year, so I don’t know.
“As long as I feel that [I can make a difference to the team], that’s a good indicator that I can still play at the top level. So that’s for me the only assurance that I need. But I have no idea how long that’s going to stay [the case].”
Signed from Wolfsburg for £55 million in 2015, De Bruyne is approaching a decade at City, during which time he has established himself as one of the Premier League’s greatest players.
The prospect of him potentially bowing out at the end of the campaign would mark the end of an era and a sad day for City supporters but, having started just 25 of City’s 78 matches since limping out of the Champions League final victory over Inter Milan in June last year, he faces a challenge to prove he can get back on top again.
Pep Guardiola believes De Bruyne will not be interested in a bit-part role and thinks the midfielder will only stay if he feels he can still deliver consistently at the highest level.
“Kevin, I’m pretty sure, will be honest,” the City manager said. “He will want to finish here after this season or the next one, or the next one, at his best. I don’t think he will be here when he believes he doesn’t feel he can be the Kevin that can produce and help the team like he has done in the last decade.
“In these kind of situations, like David Silva was, he will decide the best for him and the team because I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want to be in the position that cannot be – I’m not saying playing every three days for 11 months – but when he performs he has to play as the best Kevin possible, and unfortunately with the injuries he could not deliver.”
De Bruyne missed five months last season with a ruptured hamstring. But he says his current problem has been the most frustrating of his playing career because of the lack of clarity around an injury that he expected would keep him out for a matter of days, not seven weeks and leave him unable to kick a ball. His 74th-minute introduction in Saturday’s 4-0 defeat at home by Tottenham was only his third substitute appearance since returning.
“My lower abdomen and everything with the nerves around it was creating pain in my groins, so I couldn’t really shoot,” De Bruyne explained. “So every time I would shoot the ball, I would get real pain. I couldn’t kick a ball. So I was trying to find methods to get better, to get my power back.
“But it took a long time to get better. And actually, it only got better on Friday. I don’t know why. I can’t explain it. I don’t know why. And now the last few days it’s been better. So I’m hoping to keep going upwards.
“This has been the most frustrating injury because last year when I had the hamstring, I knew I was going to be out for five, six months. That’s fine. But now it was: ‘I don’t know’.
“After it happened I was basically testing myself to be able to play for the weekend and I wasn’t able to. So I didn’t know how long it would take me to get better and, in the end, it’s taken me a very, very long time. So it’s really frustrating to not know when you’re coming back and why you’re getting pain.
“The scans were not really that bad, but there’s obviously been something that’s not right and you have to deal with. So I’m pleased I’m getting better, but I still need to get better and I’m doing a lot of stuff to do that.”
In terms of his future, De Bruyne said Guardiola’s decision to extend his contract by two years to June 2027 could smooth his situation, but he insisted he was in no rush to sit down to talk with the club.
“I had a conversation in the summer but then I had the injury so I was not in the right frame of mind to speak about that,” he said. “I really want to be good and be back where I need to be on the pitch and be myself again. And then there’s no rush. So I don’t feel uncomfortable in my situation. I just want to play football and I’m not really worried.
“It could help [Guardiola staying] because I know what the future holds and I don’t have to speak to Pep about what’s happening in the future. If it would be a new coach, obviously you need to have a conversation with these people because you don’t know what they want with you.
“Maybe I would have a conversation if I want to speak about my future with Pep because I don’t know what he thinks. And maybe he changes his mind and says, ‘Kevin, thank you. Time to leave’. But there’s more understanding of what is happening. I know how he works, how he works with the team, how he works with the players. So that’s nothing new to me.”
