Leroy Sane will undergo surgery in Austria this weekend as he recovers from cruciate ligament damage in his right knee.

The Manchester City winger, injured in the Community Shield win over Liverpool, was expected to fly to Barcelona for surgery this week to be treated by specialist Dr Cugat, who has decades of experience working with Pep Guardiola. The doctor has helped Benjamin Mendy and Ilkay Gundogan recover from similar injuries, as well as helping John Stones, Kevin De Bruyne and Vincent Kompany among others.

Guardiola seemed confident last week that Sane would fly out to Barcelona for treatment but said this Friday that the operation had not been done because the player still had swelling around the injury.

When asked if the surgery would still be taking place in Barcelona, he replied: "I cannot answer that question. I don't know." It was later confirmed that Sane had chosen to go to the Gelenkpunkt Surgery in Innsbruck, Austria instead.

City are still happy with Dr Cugat but it is understood the player would rather see Professor Christian Fink, who he knows through the German national team.

Like Cugat, Fink is not attached to a specific team but is a renowned expert in knee surgery in the treatment of sports injuries.

Show Player

As well as helping players for the German national team, Fink has also done work for Bayern Munich stars and is believed to be favoured by Dr Muller-Wohlfahrt, who left the club after a number of disagreements with Guardiola but has now returned. Bayern players Lucas Hernandez and Corentin Tolisso have both been sent to Fink's surgery in the last year.