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Pep Guardiola says he is 'praying' that his Manchester City players get through the international break without acquiring any new injury concerns.

The Blues have been without Kevin De Bruyne and Benjamin Mendy for much of the season and require the full compliment of their squad to maintain their challenge for an unprecedented quadruple of trophies between now and the end of the season.

City lifted the Carabao Cup in February and sit two points adrift of Liverpool in the Premier League table with a game in hand.

Guardiola will lead his side into a Champions League quarter-final with Tottenham after their FA Cup semi-final against Brighton at Wembley as City look to trump Manchester United's treble from 1999.

The Blues do not play again until their March 30 trip to Fulham and Guardiola wants the members of his squad on international duty over the next two weeks wrapped in cotton wool.

"Pray," the City boss said after overseeing his side's 3-2 comeback victory against Swansea on Saturday.

"Yeah. Pray to come back fit. That is what I want.

"They have to go there play with their national team, enjoy, help their own national teams but hopefully they will come back fit like they are now."

Nicolás Otamendi, John Stones and Fabian Delph have withdrawn from their respective national teams through injury since the victory at Swansea and join Sergio Aguero, Aymeric Laporte and David Silva in a rare break from the rigours of the title race.

"Yeah, the people who don’t have international team have a week off," Guardiola said.

"They have to train, they will have a programme to train every day a little bit, and after you have one week to prepare for Fulham and the next games.

"Then we have Cardiff in midweek, before the Tottenham first leg we have the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley so it’s crazy. The fixtures we have in April, that is why we need everybody."

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