Edited by Michael Ingbian
Edited by Paul Elegbeleye | Photo: Bryan Berlin / WikiPortraits, CC BY-SA 4.0
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Manchester City fans have grown used to bad news arriving at the worst possible time, and this summer was no different.
Rodrigo Hernández Cascante, 2026 World Cup champion and 2024 Ballon d’Or winner, has undergone back surgery, and once more City’s plans for the upcoming season are thrown into uncertainty before a ball has even been kicked.
THE OPERATION
Manchester City confirmed the procedure took place on Monday, the 27th of July 2026, calling it successful minor back surgery. The statement, calm and carefully worded, is the kind clubs release when they want supporters to stay relaxed without actually explaining much. Rodri had been feeling discomfort for some time, the club said, and would now begin a short period of rehabilitation.
A WORRISOME HISTORY
To understand why this news is unnerving for Cityzens, you have to go back to September 2024. Rodri tore his ACL and damaged his meniscus in a game against Arsenal, an injury so serious that Pep Guardiola wrote off the rest of his season within hours of it happening. The club did not sugarcoat it. This was the worst-case scenario that had happened.
However, Rodri fought back. Only eight months later, he was named among the substitutes again, then managed to ease into the Club World Cup. Sadly, he was withdrawn against Al-Hilal due to injury, looking far from his best. Since then, it has been one interruption after another: a knock here, a setback there, and now a back surgery just as pre-season intensity begins to build.
For a player once considered the most complete midfielder on the planet, Rodri’s incessant fitness issues are starting to build their own narrative. This unfortunate pattern is becoming as much a part of his career at Manchester City as the trophies are.
THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CLUB
On the pitch, the team can probably survive a few weeks without him. Enzo Marasca, City’s new manager, has options in midfield, and if the rehabilitation stays short, this would just be a minor footnote instead of a season-defining blow.
But Rodri is not just another midfielder that Manchester City can simply rotate in and out. He is the central cog in the wheel that is Manchester City, as far as playing football is concerned. Guardiola built his successful, dominant style at City around one man sitting in front of the back four, dictating tempo and closing gaps before they open, and this club has never found anyone who replicates that role in quite the same way.
Every time he has missed extended spells, the drop-off in quality and control has been obvious. Games often get scrappier in his absence, and moments of chaos creep in that simply do not happen when he is marshalling things from deep.
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REAL MADRID AND THE EXPIRING CONTRACT
Beyond the injuries, Rodri has just twelve months left on his current deal, and Real Madrid have been strongly linked with a move, sensing an opening given his fitness questions. His silence regarding signing an extension is also suggestive. City are reportedly still hoping to tie him down long-term, but negotiating with a player in Rodri’s current position is never straightforward.
If anything, this surgery adds pressure to that conversation rather than easing it. Either City get clarity soon, or they risk watching a generational talent walk away for nothing next summer while also trying to plan a title challenge without knowing how available he will be from one month to the next.
WHAT LIES AHEAD?
The season is close. The fixtures do not wait for scans to clear or rehab plans to finish. Maresca has decisions to make regardless of what Rodri’s body allows, and City will find out very quickly just how much they still lean on one man to hold the whole thing together.
Nonetheless, City have been here before with Rodri. All anyone can do, Cityzens, Madridistas, and football fans in general, is wait for updates, manage expectations, and hope the rehabilitation period really is short so that one of the best players of the beautiful game will be back to entertain us as soon as possible.
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