Pep Guardiola provides an update on John Stones and Riyad Mahrez for Manchester City.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola spoke about John Stones and Riyad Mahrez after the win over Burnley

Pep Guardiola said that starting John Stones at Burnley was not worth the risk after the Manchester City defender pulled out of the England camp during the recent international period.

Stones was due to start against Switzerland but did not feel right in the warm-up and so was replaced before the game started. Despite training with Gareth Southgate’s group ahead of the game with Ivory Coast last week, he was sent back to Manchester before it after feeling more discomfort.

Guardiola explained that Stones had been on antibiotics for the groin problem ahead of City’s match with Burnley but had suffered inflammation, meaning the manager opted to pick Nathan Ake and Aymeric Laporte instead. Ake impressed on his first league start since Norwich in February as the Blues claimed a 2-0 win.

“John could not play in the national team,” said Guardiola. “He was not injured but he had something disturbing to hit the ball. He took antibiotics in the last few days and he had an inflammation.

“He’s not injured but he wasn’t perfect and I didn’t want to take the risk. I’m very pleased because Nathan is one of the guys loved the most and he could play today and show what an incredible defender he is.”

Guardiola also revealed that Riyad Mahrez may have started at Turf Moor had Algeria not suffered heartbreak in their bid to reach the World Cup. Algeria conceded a goal in the last 10 seconds against Cameroon to miss out on a place in Qatar later this year, and their furious football federation has appealed to FIFA over what they feel was “scandalous” refereeing.”

I was a little bit concerned about this Burnley game,” said Guardiola, “honestly, with all respect, a little bit more than the Liverpool game. I know against Liverpool how our people and players will be, but here with just one training session together after the international break.

“Riyad was sad after what happened – maybe if he’d qualified he would have played today – and Kevin had 10 days off. You never know how we are going to be and that’s why I’m more than pleased for the victory today to continue the fight against Liverpool.