After picking up yet another hamstring injury, will Kevin De Bruyne ever put together a full season again?’
The despondent trudge is getting unsettlingly familiar.Kevin De Bruyne has limped out of bigger games than the Premier League opener. This summer, he has withdrawn from larger events. His Champions League final, like his evening in Burnley, ended prematurely.
A focus on De Bruyne’s body allows us to focus on his incredible right foot, which he exploits to unlock defenses, pass and cross with an ability that most can only envy. It could shift to his progressively frail hamstrings. Inter Milan may be remembered alongside Burnley by De Bruyne. His previous two starts, two months apart, left him hobbled.
“He was injured again, unfortunately. A problem in the same position, he said to me as in the final of the Champions League,” rued Pep Guardiola. “It depends on the magnitude of the injury but it will be a few weeks out.” There will be no De Bruyne against Sevilla in the European Super Cup or against Newcastle in the first major test of Manchester City’s defence of their Premier League title. He could sit out the start of their Champions League campaign.
A summer sandwiched by injuries suggests De Bruyne was rushed back. He had said after the Community Shield he was way ahead of schedule; he had targeted the Super Cup for his comeback. “It’s a pity because he had recovered well,” Guardiola said. “Maybe it was my mistake [to pick him] but if he is injured after 15-20 minutes it is not something wrong, when it is 65 or 70 it is the fatigue of the muscle. We have to talk with the doctors and him.” His plan, he had said, was to give the Belgian 50 or 55 minutes, rather than the cameo he had at Wembley. Which, as that culminated in the penalty he slammed against the underside of the bar in the shootout, has completed an ill-fated start to the season.
“He is disappointed but he is strong and will be back,” added Guardiola. Yet for how long? De Bruyne may be increasingly injury prone. For a player who has never looked like a natural athlete, a red-faced figure who can seem a throwback to earlier eras, he has shown great durability. He has won 99 caps for Belgium – he would have brought up a century in the summer but for injury – and this was the 587th game of his club career. His 32nd birthday only came in June but to play almost 700 matches by that stage means he has plenty of miles on the clock.
De Bruyne was forced off the field against Burnley due to an injury.
Alternatively, miles on the hamstring. He admitted after the Champions League final that he had been playing for two months with the possibility of it snapping. He’ll have been out of commission for the better part of six months by the time he’s fully recovered. It has raised concerns that it will be a recurring theme for the rest of his career.
It may be illustrated by a reunion with City’s other talismanic Belgian. Vincent Kompany, a teammate for club and country, continued to make significant contributions in the latter years of his career at the Etihad Stadium, but did not participate in 30 games in any of the last four seasons. At the age of 33, he played his final game. De Bruyne should have a longer career, but his appearances will have to be limited.
All of this could be a difficulty, especially for a team as talented as City’s. De Bruyne is a one-of-a-kind talent – “what a player he is,” Kompany exclaimed – who achieves exceptional levels of creativity, as evidenced by his 29 assists last season.
He is Erling Haaland’s main supply, and the evolving dynamics in the City squad have made his abilities even more valuable. With the departures of Riyad Mahrez and Ilkay Gundogan, they have lost two of the most likely contributors of goals and assists among their offensive midfielders and wingers. Mateo Kovacic will not provide as many as the German; if Lucas Paqueta arrives, another capable technician will not be able to equal Mahrez’s impact in the last third.
De Bruyne is irreplaceable in many ways: no one is a like-for-like replacement, and as he enters his thirties, City will have to consider who his long-term successor is. In the near term, they can remember Phil Foden’s effect when he came on for De Bruyne in the Champions League final, and how they won the domestic triple when he was out for much of the 2018-19 season. But now, with each injury, there’s a sense that it won’t be the last, and that De Bruyne is nearing the end. A man who has lit many a game may continue to miss.