Football
Jonathan Smith, Manchester City correspondent 5y

Man City's De Bruyne, Stones, Fernandinho could return for Fulham clash - sources

Manchester City have been handed a significant injury boost with Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones and Fernandinho in contention to feature in Saturday's trip to Fulham, sources have told ESPN FC.

Many of Pep Guardiola's squad are back at the Etihad Campus on Monday after being given time off for the international break.

De Bruyne has not played since injuring his hamstring in the victory over Bournemouth on March 2 and missed Belgium's European Championship qualifiers against Russia and Cyprus. Stones injured his groin and was withdrawn from the England squad for the Euro 2020 victory over the Czech Republic and Monday night's game in Montenegro.

Brazil international Fernandinho is also on his way back after being out for more than a month after also suffering a groin injury in the Carabao Cup final triumph over Chelsea on Feb. 24.

The trio could feature at Craven Cottage with a busy period upcoming as City compete for the Premier League and face Champions League games against Tottenham as well as an FA Cup semifinal against Brighton.

Benjamin Mendy, who has missed much of the past two seasons with knee injuries, is also nearing a return after flying to Abu Dhabi for warm weather training along with teammate David Silva.

Guardiola, who took a break ahead of the final months of the season as City try to win an unprecedented quadruple, said he "prayed" to have his players back fit ahead of the international break.

He is still awaiting the return of a number of key first team players including Raheem Sterling, Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva and Oleksandr Zinchenko who are all in action on Monday.

Brazil's Ederson, Gabriel Jesus and Danilo along with Riyad Mahrez, of Algeria, have fixtures on Tuesday.

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