Rodri Faces Injury Setback Ahead of New Season
Rodri faces the prospect of starting the new season not in midfield, but in a treatment room.
The Manchester City and Spain lynchpin is confronting an extended spell out with a back injury that may require surgery, casting a shadow over his Golden Ball World Cup triumph and throwing fresh doubt over his future at the Etihad.
Just days ago in New Jersey, Rodri stood at the summit of the game again. At 30, after two years ravaged by physical setbacks, he captained Spain to a 1-0 win over Argentina in Sunday’s final and walked away with the award for the tournament’s best player. His passing, his poise, his authority between the lines – all looked like the Rodri of old, restored and unshakeable.
Now comes another brutal twist.
The back problem is serious enough that an operation is on the table and is expected to rule him out for the start of the club season. For City’s new manager Enzo Maresca, planning his first campaign in charge, the timing could hardly be worse. For Rodri, it feels like the latest chapter in an unforgiving medical file.
Injury History
His troubles began in September 2024, in a 2–2 draw with Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium. What looked at first like another intense Premier League battle turned into a personal nightmare when he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament. The injury wiped out most of his season, removing the anchor from City’s midfield and forcing a complete reshuffle in Pep Guardiola’s final months in charge.
When he did return, his luck refused to turn. At the Club World Cup last July he picked up another injury, the kind that doesn’t grab headlines but chips away at rhythm and confidence. Last season, hamstring and groin problems arrived in waves, stopping him just as he tried to build momentum. He started only 17 Premier League matches – a startling number for a player once considered almost indestructible.
That he still found the form to dominate a World Cup only underlines his resilience. It also explains the emotion in his words after lifting the trophy with Spain.
“For me, it’s been a very tough time,” he said. “I just want the new generations to see my example as an opportunity. When you go down, you can rise again. This is my philosophy for my entire life. Of course, sometimes things go well, things go wrong, but always the positiveness.”
Those lines land differently now, with the prospect of surgery looming.
The injury arrives at a delicate moment in his club career. Rodri’s contract at Manchester City runs out next June, and his future is far from settled. He has long harboured a desire to return to Spain at some point, and Real Madrid are understood to be his preferred destination if he does go back. Yet for all the noise around that possibility, Madrid have not made a concrete move.
City, under Maresca, want him to stay. The Italian knows that whatever tactical tweaks he brings, a fit Rodri gives structure to everything: the tempo of the passing, the balance without the ball, the calm in the biggest moments. Losing him for the start of the season is one problem. Losing him for good next summer would be another entirely.
So the club waits for medical clarity. Rodri waits too, caught between the glow of a World Cup that restored his status as one of the game’s elite midfielders and the reality of another potentially lengthy rehab.
He has already proved he can rise again. The question now is whether his body will let him do it one more time – and in which colours he will be wearing when he does.
