Guardiola on Sane’s injury: “I think he will be okay.”

Has Manchester City let their opinion of the proposed transfer of Leroy Sane be known? With only days left before the close of the English transfer window, the Bayern Munich transfer target has been thrown into the starting lineup for the Community Shield match against Liverpool.

That’s not the way this is supposed to work.

Pep Guardiola starting Sane in this match potentially jeopardizes a record transfer for both clubs. If Sane were to pick up a serious injury in this match, the transfer would be off, surely. Why take the risk? Or, is this Guardiola’s last ditch effort to convince Sane to stay?

The move can only be interpreted as one thing from Manchester City: “We’re so rich that we don’t need the funds from this transfer. If he gets hurt, he gets hurt. We don’t like the way you’ve done business.”

As of now, nothing has changed from reports on this transfer being close to completion. I guess, for now at least, we’ll have to remain in Wait And See Mode.

Update #1: Sane has left the Community Shield match in the 10th minute with a leg injury. He limped off the field on his own. Of note: Sane fell holding his knee. He limped off grabbing his hamstring, under his right butt cheek.

The scene in images thanks to Tobias Altschäffl:

Update #2: Talk Sport are reporting that Manchester City have told them Sane “was taken off as a precaution”. Good news.

Update #3: Manchester City won the Community Shield on penalties. Sane has a bandage around his knee and is walking with a slight limp. HOWEVER, Sane climbed the steps at Wembley to go to the upper level where the English do their celebrations. It certainly doesn’t look like a serious knee injury.

Update #4: Stuart Brennan with the Manchester Evening News snapped a photo of Sane walking through the mixed zone, noting that he had “no real limp”.

Neil Jones with Goal snagged this video of the same.

Update #5: During the post-match press conference, Guardiola gave a small update on Sane’s situation. According to NBC Sports’ Joe Prince-Wright, Guardiola said, “The first impression was not good. We will wait for what the doctor says, but I think he will be okay.”

From everything that we’ve seen so far, it would appear that when the injury initially happened, there was legitimate fear; however, considering everything that we’ve seen so far since then, perhaps it’s far less serious than originally feared.