AFCON: Algeria star Ait-Nouri misses flight to join Man City

Algerian defender Rayan Ait-Nouri is doubtful for Manchester City’s Carabao Cup semifinal meeting with Newcastle United on Tuesday after he missed a flight.

After exiting the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) quarterfinal on Friday, the wingback flew back to England to rejoin the former Premier League champions’ squad ahead of the big clash. Ait-Nouri featured for Algeria as they lost 2-0 to Nigeria in Morocco.

Now back with his club, manager Pep Guardiola has disclosed that the defender arrived in camp later after missing a connecting flight while in transit from Morocco to the United Kingdom.

What are chances of Ait-Nouri featuring for Man City on Tuesday?

The Spaniard has since put the prospects of Ait-Nouri’s involvement in the Carabao Cup game against Newcastle at St James Park at 50-50 percent.

“We’ll see after training,” Guardiola told Manchester City website.

“We have some players with niggles so we will see how they feel tomorrow.

“Rayan has come back from AFCON and missed a connection so was a little bit late. We will see how he feels. We will not take risks for players who could get injured again.”

Guardiola also cast doubt on the availability of other City players including Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, John Stones, Mateo Kovacic, Oscar Bobb and Savinho who are all injured.

Dias and Gvardiol, the Citizens’ key defenders, suffered long-term injuries.

The good new for Guardiola is that new signing from Ghana, Antoine Semenyo, is available for the game against the Magpies.

The manager said: “The impression is what he has done in Bournemouth in many years, he is a nice guy. And he showed in a few actions what he showed at Bournemouth and hopefully he can continue to do it here.”

The game will kick off at 8pm UK time. A reverse fixture will take place in February at the Etihad.