Sergio Aguero injury: Manchester City striker’s absence offers glimpse of uncertain future up front

City will one day transition to a post-Aguero existence. Is Jesus ready?

Manchester City strikers Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus (Getty Images)

Would it surprise you to learn that Sergio Aguero has only been directly involved in one of Manchester City’s last 16 goals? In fact Aguero has scored only once in the league since the 8-0 drubbing of Watford in mid-September. He has five in 10 appearances in all competitions, notching only against Atalanta and Southampton.

It is hardly a poor spell of form. In any case, an excellent start to the campaign means that Aguero is currently City’s top scorer with 13 goals in 16 games. But the fact is that by his own high standards, he is only in ordinary nick. And that was before Saturday’s injury setback.

Ahead of City’s sixth Champions League group stage meeting with Shakhtar Donetsk in three years, Pep Guardiola confirmed that Aguero will be missing for at least “a few weeks” with a thigh problem picked up in the win over Chelsea. He will also need “a miracle” if he is going to play in the forthcoming Manchester derby at the Etihad on 7 December.

Guardiola otherwise spoke effusively about Aguero, describing his “big star” as the humblest person he had ever met. “There are other players that think they’re incredible and they did much less than Sergio,” he said. When Aguero limped off on Saturday, the City manager had a quick word and there was a grave look on his face once the conversation ended.

That is because, to an extent, City are stepping into the unknown. Despite still carrying a reputation for being injury prone, Aguero has not had an extended spell on the sidelines since the end of the 2017-18 season, by which point City had effectively won the Premier League title and had nothing else to play for.

Last year was one of Aguero’s best in terms of availability, with a groin injury in early December enforcing his only significant period of absence. Aguero was available for all but one game in the second half of City’s Premier League campaign and scored 13 goals in 18 games as Liverpool’s lead at the top of the table was successfully chased down.

City faced a gruelling, congested schedule during last season’s run-in and a similar crop of fixtures await them over the next few weeks. This time, they will need to negotiate them without their all-time leading scorer. But this crisis may bring opportunity. If Aguero is showing the first faint signs of decline, it paves the way for a necessary succession.

Gabriel Jesus’s inconsistent start to the season mirrors a stop-start City career to date. He has been named in just six Premier League or Champions League starting line-ups this season but that is at least a vast improvement on last year, when he made only eight league starts in total.

On Monday, he articulated his frustrations with life as Aguero’s understudy. “It is not easy,” he admitted. “But I am like a guy who wants to play, wants to work and improve my football, so sometimes I am not happy because I want to play, but I keep on working.” He said he was “not happy” that Aguero was injured, but was nevertheless “ready to play”.

And Guardiola believes so too. “I admire him. More than appreciate him, I admire him,” he said. “I don’t like when players don’t play, they can be upset but the day after they come here they show me how sad and upset they are that they don’t play the day before. That’s not the right way. These players will be out for themselves alone immediately.

Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus (Getty Images)

“Gabriel is completely the opposite. He’s exceptional. You see in the games, he plays good or bad but he gives absolutely everything. The last Copa America, he was so good and won, then he came back confident in himself. That’s why I have no doubts. He’ll play well in the next weeks when Sergio is not available.”

There are still plenty of questions surrounding Jesus. He can be the player who lit up last summer’s Copa America or the one who underwhelmed at the previous year’s World Cup. His penalty-taking recently came under scrutiny after twice missing with limp efforts in the space of nine days, first against Atalanta for City and then against Argentina with Brazil.

But as he closes in on 250 senior career appearances at the age of just 22, he needs to come good. Sooner or later, City will have to transition into a post-Aguero existence. Once David Silva departs next summer, he will be the final link to Roberto Mancini’s 2011-12 title winners. His own contract will expire the following year, not long after his 33rd birthday.

It is not certain that Aguero will cut ties with City at that point but it is expected. A return to Argentina and boyhood club Independiente has long been his ambition. City have long been hoping that, when that happens, they will already have a world-class striker ready-made to step up to plate. The next few weeks will give us a glimpse of that uncertain future.