Rodri to Undergo Back Surgery as Manchester City Starts New Era
Enzo Maresca’s first week as Manchester City manager has brought a jarring reminder of the physical toll modern football exacts on its brightest stars.
Barely days after lifting the World Cup and being crowned Golden Ball winner as the tournament’s outstanding player, Rodri is heading for the operating table.
The Spain captain will undergo surgery on a back problem on Monday, Maresca confirmed at his first news conference as City boss. For the club’s metronome in midfield, it is another brutal twist at the end of two stop-start seasons.
World champion, wounded body
Rodri arrived at the World Cup with questions hanging over his fitness after two injury-ravaged campaigns at club level. An anterior cruciate ligament injury wiped out most of his 2024-25 season. Setbacks last term meant he was often missing when City needed him most.
Then he went to the biggest stage of all and looked reborn.
He drove Spain to the title, dictated games with familiar authority and walked away with the Golden Ball. The Ballon d'Or winner looked like the old Rodri again: sharp, dominant, untouchable.
Yet behind that resurgence, the back issue lingered. Now it demands attention.
“Now, [he has] surgery on Monday. Then he needs a holiday, he needs to rest and recover and then he will be back with us,” Maresca said, outlining a simple but significant roadmap: operation, recuperation, reset.
He offered no timeline. No return date. Just the clear message that City will not rush their midfield cornerstone.
Maresca unfazed by Real Madrid noise
While Rodri prepares for surgery, the rumour mill has kept spinning.
Reports over the past week have linked the 30-year-old with a move to Real Madrid, a predictable swirl around a player who has just captained his country to the World Cup and is widely regarded as one of the finest midfielders on the planet.
Maresca brushed it aside.
“Around big players there are always speculations so I am not worried about that,” he said. Calm, clipped, and very much to the point.
“I think it is normal, also because they [Spain] won the World Cup and because he is one of the best players. I think every manager wants to have Rodri because he is a top player.”
The message was unmistakable: interest is inevitable, anxiety is not. City expect their midfield general back at Etihad Stadium once his body allows it.
For now, the new manager’s first major task is not tactical or stylistic. It is to navigate the opening stretch of his reign without the man who usually knits everything together in front of the back line.
Rodri has carried club and country for years. The next phase of City’s season may depend on how quickly his back – and Maresca’s new project – can carry the weight again.
