Manchester City centre-back Josko Gvardiol picked up "a niggle" during his side's Premier League contest with Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon.

The 22-year-old made his 32nd appearance of the season in the clash at Selhurst Park, but he was substituted at the interval, with Manuel Akanji his replacement in the English capital.

Man City are currently without the services of Kyle Walker and Nathan Ake through injury, and the club have now been handed another defensive blow ahead of their Champions League clash with Real Madrid.

The Citizens will head to Spain next week for the first leg of their European Cup quarter-final with Real Madrid.

Man City head coach Pep Guardiola has revealed that he was not prepared to take any risks with the Croatian's fitness during a vital stage of the campaign.

Guardiola hopeful Gvardiol will be fit for Real Madrid game

"The reason for Josko coming off was because he felt a niggle and we didn't want to risk any injuries," Guardiola told TNT Sports after the 4-2 success over Palace.

"We will see which players we have available because Josko had a little problem. We will see. Next one. We were unlucky to play early on after Aston Villa but now lucky we have time to recover before Real Madrid. We will try to give them a good game.

"Manuel Akanji pushes a lot and is unbelievable playing at left-back. He is an incredible players. Rico Lewis and Oscar Bobb were really good on that side in the first half. We wanted to score early in the second half and then we could close the game."

Kevin De Bruyne scored a brace at Selhurst Park to move onto 100 goals for the club, and Guardiola lavished praise on the Belgium international following the contest.

Guardiola brands De Bruyne 'one of the club's best-ever players'

"Without him we would not be able to win this. You talk about managers but players like Kevin make this game easy," Guardiola said after the success in the English capital.

"He has been one of the best players in the history of City. To sustain this for nine years at City, and have that consistency is amazing. The first goal is unbelievable. The assist is unbelievable. Really good.

"Mentally for sure [Kevin is fresh]. Kevin is like everyone, on the bus in the locker room and laugh. The body language dictates a lot how he is. All the players, especially Kevin, hopefully they can sustain it.

"100 goals is a lot and a lot of assists too. Really good. We were not solid like normally in terms of defensively and on the transition, that's how we gave away the first goal. [Playing] Three days, three days, three days. We had the mental energy. It's more than physicality, it's demanding."

De Bruyne has now managed 100 goals and 167 assists in 372 appearances for Man City since his arrival at the club from Wolfsburg in the summer of 2015. body check tags ::