Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has talked up the importance of keeping Samir Nasri fit throughout the upcoming season.

The French midfielder missed large parts of the 2015-16 campaign through injury, being limited to just four Premier League starts.

Guardiola revealed that Nasri had reported back for pre-season "overweight", but is hopeful that he will be up to speed by the time the new term starts.

"He arrived a little bit overweight. He is much better now. He fights a lot in these weeks," Guardiola told reporters.

"There is still a little bit of weight. Last season he was injured in the season. We want to avoid that. We want the players on the pitch to be fit.

"We want their weight to be in the right place where they can run 90 minutes like Fernandinho and [Aleksandar] Kolarov and the others. Hopefully in the next two weeks he will be OK."

City will begin the new season at home to Sunderland on Saturday, August 13.