Mateo Kovacic has become the latest Manchester City star to send a personal message to Rodri, who has been ruled out for the rest of the season due to injury.

Pep Guardiola’s players had to come from behind again to claim all three points and avoided a late scare against Fulham on Saturday afternoon as Marco Silva’s side put in a strong performance away from home.

Andreas Pereira opened the scoring for the visitors after a counter-attack, one of the signs of danger for the home side. He converted from close range after a sensational back-heeled cross from Raul Jimenez.

A Mateo Kovacic brace either side of half-time would put Manchester City ahead before Jeremy Doku would add an insurance goal late on from the edge of the penalty area, securing all the points despite a Rodrigo Muniz effort.

Speaking after Manchester City’s last outing and win over Fulham before the international break, the two-goal scorer against the Cottagers was keen to highlight the challenge of coming on for Rodri.

“I’m playing there at the moment, so I have to replace Rodri,” said Mateo Kovacic. “We miss him very much, I think every team would miss a player like Rodri.”

The Croatian continued by sending a message to the Ballon d’Or candidate: “We wish him a speedy recovery and that he returns to good form as soon as possible. But for now we have to adapt and the manager certainly has a lot of options so that we can rotate.

“We play every three days and every match is tough. It’s not easy and we have to adapt to the schedule. It is what it is. We have to be in top form every day.”

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