ATLANTA — If Rodri has come to the Club World Cup to send a message to Pep Guardiola that he’s ready to be thrust back into action, he wasted no time in delivering it.
Ahead of Manchester City’s first session on their first day at their Florida training base, it was Rodri who was out on the grass before anyone else. He enlisted one of the many coaches in Guardiola’s backroom staff as a training partner and as his teammates were still trotting out onto the pitch, he was already fizzing passes from touchline to touchline. One poor touch from his partner — caught by the assembled TV cameras — prompted howls of laughter from the Spanish midfielder.
Guardiola, and everyone else at City, will be glad to see Rodri smiling again.
It’s nine months since he limped off the Etihad Stadium pitch, almost in tears, his knee ligaments damaged to such an extent that he would require surgery. In isolation, the 2-2 draw against Arsenal — secured thanks to a 90th-minute John Stones equalizer — was a good result. In reality, though, it was the day City’s hopes of a record-breaking fifth successive Premier League title began to go up in smoke.
