Kalvin Phillips has opened up about his start to life at Manchester City.
The 26 year-old completed an initial £42 million move from Leeds United in the summer, but has seen injury hamper his start to life at the Etihad Stadium.
Phillips has made just three competitive appearances for Manchester City so far this season, and has been sidelined for over a month after undergoing surgery on a recurring shoulder injury.
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The England midfielder is still hopeful of being named in Gareth Southgate's squad for the World Cup later this week, and is also expected to be named as a substitute for City's Carabao Cup third round clash with Chelsea.
Phillips featured from the bench against West Ham, Sevilla and Borussia Dortmund.
Despite the continued injury issues, Phillips has opened up in a new interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, about joining the Premier League champions this summer and working under Pep Guardiola.
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“Pep's been great and spoken to me a lot since I’ve been here - every time I picked up an injury I thought he would be getting sick of me, but he's been great.
"After my first full contact session back, he took me to one side for a chat after and told me he was going to try and get me some minutes against Chelsea which is a real positive.
“He knows I need to be out there playing football for Manchester City and try to be involved with England at the World Cup."
Phillips was one of five signings made by City this summer, as the Blues also added Erling Haaland, Julian Alvarez, Stefan Ortega and Manuel Akanji to their squad.
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Reflecting on his start to life with the Sky Blues, the 26 year-old said: “I expected a different kind of environment when I went to City, but Man City is a massive family club and they’re very family friendly and treated me as one of their own from the moment I walked in. Everybody’s made me feel so welcome.
“I was lucky because I had a couple of England team-mates and there were a few lads I've played against before.
“But even just the aura around the changing room – everyone’s really friendly and it doesn’t matter if you’ve not been involved in games that much or not because we still see each other every day.
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"Everyone's a top class footballer but a top class person as well.
"At Leeds I was one of the main players in the team, whereas at City, it doesn’t really matter if you play or not because they would still win games.
“Going into a changing room where the team had won so many titles and trophies, it was a bit like going into a big new school and you’re a little bit scared at first, but I was welcomed into the team and made to feel at home straight away.”
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Phillips will hope to feature in Wednesday's game against Chelsea and possibly also at the weekend when City host Brentford in the Premier League.
Topics: Manchester City, Kalvin Phillips, Pep Guardiola, England
Harry Winters