Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte went through knee surgery this summer and will not play any part in Saturday's Community Shield against Liverpool, Pep Guardiola has confirmed.
The Premier League champions can make it three wins on the trot in pre-season following their triumphs over Club America and Bayern Munich in the United States this month.
Liverpool chased Pep Guardiola's side right till the very end of last season as Manchester City pipped the Reds to retain the league title and make it four titles in five seasons.
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Erling Haaland, Julian Alvarez and Kalvin Phillips could all make their competitive debuts in City colours against Liverpool after making an eye-catching start to proceedings in pre-season.
However, City will be without Aymeric Laporte for the curtain riser - as Pep Guardiola confirmed in his press conference ahead of the Community Shield at the King Power Stadium.
The Catalan revealed Laporte went through surgery in his knee following the end of the past campaign after playing through injury in City's title run-in.
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Laporte revealed following City's dramatic final day win against Aston Villa that he suffered an injury in his side's 5-1 thrashing of Wolves in April.
The Spain international has been ruled out of action until September at the very least by Guardiola - who will be happy to retain Nathan Ake - who was heavily linked with a move to Chelsea in recent months - into the new campaign.
City will be eyeing their first piece of silverware of the new season on Saturday as they again aim to compete on all fronts after winning the Premier League in May.
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Laporte played the most minutes amongst City's defenders over the course of the previous season after reportedly being open to leaving the club last summer.
The 28-year-old scored a string of crucial goals for the Blues in their league run-in last season, with John Stones and Ruben Dias both out with injury at crucial stages of the campaign.
With three years left on his current deal in Manchester, Laporte will want to win his place back in Guardiola's starting XI when he does return from the sidelines.
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The four-time Premier League winner has at times operated at left-back during his time at the Etihad Stadium.
Having sold Oleksandr Zinchenko to Arsenal, City need every man at the back and as things stand have only Joao Cancelo - predominantly a right-back - to play at the left side of their backline heading into next season.
Brighton star Marc Cucurella is reported to have handed in a transfer request to engineer a move to Manchester City.
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The Seagulls rejected City's opening bid worth £30 million for the 24-year-old last week and are understood to be demanding £50 million for the Barcelona academy graduate.
Further talks are set to be held between City and Brighton in the coming days as the Premier League champions look to wrap up what has been a stellar transfer window.
Topics: Manchester City, Premier League, Community Shield, Liverpool, Pep Guardiola, Aymeric Laporte
Vayam Lahoti