Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola has revealed that he decided to leave Riyad Mahrez out of City’s Community Shield squad due to concerns he may fail drug test.
Guardiola disclosed that the Algeria winger told him he wanted to be part of the match at Wembley immediately after winning the AFCON tournament.
Mahrez returned to training on Friday but Guardiola and City didn’t want to be at risk of anti-doping rules after medical staff were unable to determine the ingredients of medication he had taken during his time on international duty.
Guardiola said after the victory: “Riyad called me straight after being champion and said he wants to be back against Liverpool, I said he was more than welcome.
“But Riyad took some medicine just a little bit, but we don’t know what he took and therefore doping control today was a risk because the doctors did not know what was in the medicine.
“So that’s why he did not play today.
“He could have played some minutes, but we could not take a risk because the doctors didn’t have the medicines.
“Hopefully at West Ham, he will be fine.”
Manchester City secure the club’s first piece of silverware of the season at Wembley after defeating Jurgen Klopp’s side on penalties following a 1-1 scoreline at fulltime.
- PM NEWS
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