5 players looking to rebuild their careers in 2018/19 after serious injuries

#4: Benjamin Mendy

Benjamin Mendy has recently returned from a torn ACL at Manchester City

When Pep Guardiola expressed a wish to upgrade his full-backs at Manchester City last summer, he immediately made Tottenham’s Kyle Walker the world’s most expensive defender by spending £50m on the right-back. Just 10 days later that record was broken when Guardiola paid £52m to Monaco to bring French left-back Benjamin Mendy to the Etihad. But while Walker has had a tremendous season, Mendy’s has been wrecked by injury.

The Frenchman started the season brightly, appearing in City’s first 4 Premier League games as well as their opening Champions League fixture against Feyenoord, and his impact was immediately felt as he assisted in a Leroy Sane goal against Liverpool and helped City to keep 3 clean sheets. But in his 4th league game against Crystal Palace, he injured his knee badly in a challenge with Andros Townsend – an injury confirmed to be a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.

The initial prognosis was that Mendy would be out for the remainder of 2017/18 – a massive blow to Guardiola, who was then forced to use Fabien Delph as a makeshift left-back for the majority of the rest of City’s season – but after months of rehab the Frenchman was able to make his return for City’s recent games against Huddersfield and Brighton, albeit appearing as a substitute in both.

Mendy is now reportedly eyeing a place in France’s World Cup squad but with so few games under his belt this season that’s probably an unlikely target for him. Assuming he does miss the World Cup then 2018/19 will be a pivotal season for him, as he looks to rebuild his Manchester City career and re-establish himself as Guardiola’s first-choice left-back.