Pep Guardiola will give his Manchester City squad a period of complete rest from football during the Premier League’s new winter break.

Guardiola is among the managers who want to use the next month’s inaugural gap in the fixture list to allow players to fully escape from action, rather than keep his players ticking over in training at the Etihad Campus.

This season will see one round of fixtures staggered over two weekends, giving each team a mid-season holiday, with teams having between 13 and 16 days without playing.

Guardiola has dealt with injury problems in his club’s title defence this season and believes it will be beneficial for his squad to have a complete rest from the game.

City play West Ham on February 9, after which Guardiola will give his players a period time off, which could be four or five days to spend time with family or go on holiday.

Their next game is 13 days later, away to Leicester, before they face Real Madrid in the Champions League the following week.