The midfielder is healthy and raring to go after a successful pre-season for him and the Premier League champions concluded in Japan
Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne is confident the fitness problems that plagued him last season are in the past.
Three knee injuries – two of them involving ligament damage – and an ill-timed hamstring issue restricted the Belgium international to 19 Premier League appearances as City retained the title.
De Bruyne admitted to feeling mentally exhausted following a frustrating setback against Tottenham in April, which threatened to finally end his abbreviated campaign.
But after recovering in time to play and score in the FA Cup final, and having now appeared in two matches on City’s pre-season tour of Asia, the 28-year-old is at ease.
“I’m fine,” De Bruyne said after the 3-1 win against Yokohama F. Marinos, in which he netted the opener.
“What happened last year happens to everybody. I have been a professional for 11 years now and had one season where I had some injuries.
“But by the end of the year I still played 32 games while a lot of players only do that every year.
“I just get on with it. Now I feel good. I’m happy I could play a whole pre-season. I’m doing well.”
The perfect way to sign-off our Asia tour!
#mancity pic.twitter.com/61sQijcBha
— Manchester City (@ManCity) July 27, 2019
City wrapped up their friendly schedule on Saturday and are now looking towards the Community Shield clash with Liverpool on August 4.
De Bruyne welcomed the end of a tour that incorporated stops in China and Japan.
“It’s always a tough ask because you travel a lot and you need to do a lot of commercial activity and in another sense you need to prepare yourself physically,” he said.
“August is a little bit quieter. It starts really in September for us, when all the European games come.
“Obviously next week is a game when we can win a trophy, so we want to be ready to play a good game against Liverpool.”
De Bruyne echoed the sentiments of his manager Pep Guardiola when assessing the quality of their opponents in Saturday’s game.
Guardiola said that Yokohama had ‘incredible quality’ and De Bruyne praised the J-League club too.
“It was a really good game,” he continued. “I was very impressed with how Yokohama played.
“They gave us a good game and I’m happy with the way we performed. We needed this game to get more rhythm and I think it was a good way to end preseason.”
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