PEP GUARDIOLA WAS left bemused after it was claimed that Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy travelled to Hong Kong recently.
France international Mendy is currently recovering from a knee ligament injury that has sidelined him since November.
He is not yet fit to return to action ahead of City’s clash with Chelsea on Sunday in the Premier League, and as such was given the green light by Guardiola to make a trip to Barcelona and Paris in a bid to regain his fitness.
On Friday, though, Mendy posted a short video on his Instagram Story with the location tag of Hong Kong International Airport, suggesting he had flown to Asia.
However, he has since insisted that the video was a joke.
“It was just joking with my Uber driver,” he wrote on Twitter. “I dont [sic] want no problems, Pep.”
When asked at a press conference whether the apparent trip was planned, Guardiola — who believed Mendy to still be in Barcelona — responded:
Wow. I didn’t know it. F***, he’s a lucky guy!
“Before he went he said ‘I’m going one day to Paris’, and that’s okay because that’s here, but Hong Kong is far away, so I don’t know.
I have to install Instagram on my account to control my players because I don’t know, really I don’t know. Yesterday, he was in Barcelona.”
Questioned further on whether he would be alright with Mendy making such a long trip, he said: “No, definitely not. Definitely not.”
Following a tough Six Nations opening defeat to England, Joe Schmidt will look to regroup against a dangerous Scotland side. This week, Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey are joined by Bernard Jackman to assess the damage of last weekend and look ahead to the clash in Murrayfield:
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