After arriving in the summer for £ 12 million, the former Everton midfielder Jack Rodwell has not been a first-team regular at the Etihad stadium under the manager Roberto Mancini. However, it has been primarily due to the fact that Rodwell has not been available for selection due to his injury problems. After being patient with the player in the first half of the season, the manager has raised his concern about the number of injury problems faced by Rodwell for the first time this season. The midfielder is currently recovering from a hamstring injury, which is the sixth time he has had this injury this season.
Hamstring has been a major problem for the player, who has not featured for the club since being a substitute in the 3-0 win over Sunderland more than two months ago. Mancini has frequently complained about the lack of options in midfield, which have not allowed him to build on the success achieved last season. City are currently five points behind the leaders Manchester United. Rodwell was once regarded as the next big thing in English football. He was even compared with the former Everton striker Wayne Rooney for the quality that he possessed, but injuries have been unkind to him over the last few years.
“He’s getting better and we hope we can maybe recover him in two or three weeks. He needs to start to work with the group but he didn’t do this until [last] Thursday. I’m worried because when we bought him we thought that he was a good player and then he has these problems with his hamstrings. We hope we can improve this situation for him because he’s young, he’s got quality, he has everything to have a good career,” said Mancini, who also said that Balotelli will not be sold.