Returning Man City Star Gundogan Ruled Himself Out of Penalty Duty Against Wolves to Avoid Injury

Manchester City midfielder, Ilkay Gündoğan was so worried about a potential injury that he ruled himself out of the penalty shootout in City’s Carabao Cup win against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Gündoğan quickly dispelled fears of any injury, after revealing he was suffering with cramp during the latter stages of the cup tie.

Free-scoring Manchester City uncharacteristically didn’t score across 120 minutes of open play before understudy goalkeeper, Claudio Bravo gave a heroic display to help City win the shootout 4-1.

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Speaking to City’s official website, via Goal, he said: "The last ten minutes were really tough for me, fortunately, it doesn’t look that bad. I don't think I've pulled something.

"It feels like coming from zero to a hundred - 110 minutes I could handle in a very good way, but the last ten minutes, my legs were cramping everywhere, especially in the groin." Gündoğan was actually injured when he signed for City, as he was currently going through the rehab for a dislocated kneecap.

He also missed Germany’s winning World Cup run in 2014 due to a back injury.

German international, Gündoğan, has endured a torrid time at Manchester City, since joining from Borussia Dortmund in 2016, with his toil almost solely down to his injury record, having made only 14 appearances in 16 months at the club.

Five months into his Manchester City Career, Gündoğan ruptured his cruciate ligament and missed 252 days of football.

His unwanted reputation of being injury prone is unfortunately founded in truth, having missed almost 17% of the potential games he could have played in his nine-year career so far, just by being out injured.

Manchester City are five points clear at the top of the Premier League and are away to West Brom this Saturday, aiming to make it eight wins in a row for Pep Guardiola’s side.