3 days Ago By Dom Farrell
Kevin De Bruyne has revealed there has been no further progress on talks over a contract extension at Manchester City. De Bruyne returned to Pep Guardiola's starting lineup on Sunday, helping the reigning Premier League champions to a much-needed 2-0 win at Leicester City . The 33-year-old has been a stalwart of the record-breaking Guardiola era at the Etihad Stadium and will go down as one of the greatest players in City's history.
However, his progress since the 2022/23 treble-winning season has been plagued by fitness problems and, with the lack of physicality in an ageing midfield unit a factor in City's current malaise, it is perhaps understandable that the club are keeping their powder dry for now. MORE: Top targets and who might leave in potentially critical January window for Man City When does Kevin De Bruyne's Man City contract expire? Asked after the Leicester game whether there had been any movement on a new deal, with his present terms up in June 2025, De Bruyne simply replied: "No. Nothing yet.
" A move to either Saudi Arabia or Major League Soccer has been mooted since the summer but a more immediate concern for the Belgium international is to get somewhere close to peak fitness. He missed six months of last season when a serious recurrence of the hamstring injury he suffered during the 2023 UEFA Champions League final required surgery. A pubis injury that began troubling De Bruyne this September meant another two months out and a heavy workload necessitated by City suffering numerous other problems in a small squad meant a couple more weeks out of the first XI recently.
"It's alright. I hope to get better now," he said. "We've got some easier schedule [over the next few weeks].
I hope that some training sessions in the next few weeks will get me into a better rhythm. "I don't know [when I'll be at peak fitness]. It's hard to say.
With the injury I had, I took a while and then I had four games in 10 days, which was hard. I'm happy for today. "It's pubis.
It's a bit of everything. It's not nice but there's not a lot you can do about it, just wait." Why do Man City have so many injuries? In his absence, De Bruyne watched long-time colleagues such as Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan toil in a midfield shorn of Ballon d'Or winner Rodri due to ACL surgery.
Mateo Kovacic and Phil Foden, both starters at the King Power Stadium, have also endured spells in the treatment room. "For some of them it's really hard. It's been that kind of season," De Bruyne added, with City's campaign not set to conclude until the expanded FIFA Club World Cup in June and July next year .
"The first four weeks was alright, then we came into a rhythm where we were struggling and people were playing too many games. But they have to do it because if you don't have anyone else, you have to play. "They took the burden.
Hopefully, after New Year, people come back and we get back into a rhythm as a team. That will help." As things stand, getting back to form and fitness to give De Bruyne a fitting send-off could act as collective motivation for the City squad.
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