Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has suggested that he will hand a rest to Kevin De Bruyne at the earliest opportunity.

Earlier this week, De Bruyne claimed that he and some of his teammates were 'feeling rubbish' due to their workload since the start of the campaign.

City have suffered with injuries in recent weeks, but Guardiola has acknowledged that he would like to leave the Belgian playmaker out of his squad at some point in the next few weeks.

The 47-year-old is quoted by the Manchester Evening News as saying: "In that period, I could not give him rest because David had some personal problems. It's going well with his son but now the last three games he's injured. Delph and Foden can play in that position but they're injured so that's why I couldn't move a lot.

"Immediately when they can come we can give him some rest. For example, the last few minutes against West Brom, the last 15 minutes he came out. He's played a lot of minutes and he deserves some rest but the other side is he's such an important player for us.

"Every game he creates chances and helps us defensively and the fact we are there and fighting for important things - in that situation you are not tired."

De Bruyne has made 34 starts and three substitute outings in all competitions this season.