MANCHESTER, England -- Pep Guardiola has concerns over Benjamin Mendy's long-term future at Manchester City after missing so many games following his £52 million move from Monaco in 2017.
The French defender missed the majority of his first season with a cruciate knee ligament injury and has not started a game this campaign since Nov. 11 after an operation on his other knee.
Guardiola said that City are looking at bringing in a left-back in the summer, with sources telling ESPN FC that Leicester's England international Ben Chilwell is among their top targets.
"If [an injury] happens in two seasons it can happen [in] three, yes definitely," the City boss told a news conference ahead of their Premier League clash with Bournemouth on Saturday. " Hopefully not, we'll work with that, he's working with that, but the truth is we could use him in a few games. That is the reality.
"At the end, the strongest guys every day are there. That is the truth. That's why we are looking for, maybe, you know, for the next season."
Guardiola said he expects to make "three or four" signings with a defensive midfielder a top priority as City do not have a like-for-like deputy for Fernandinho.
He refused to be drawn on the details of what players they were looking at but it also means Oleksandr Zinchenko, who has deputised at left-back, is also hoping to keep his place in the squad.
"I don't know what's going to happen but we are thinking about the chance to find somebody in that position, but I don't know," he said. "There are three or four positions I think we have to try to look for and some ideas we have, I don't know in the end what is going to happen but it is an option, yes, to buy a left-back."
On other targets, Guardiola added: "You know, holding midfielder we are going to try and other positions we are thinking about. I'm not going to tell you which positions, I don't want to tell you the players, you have your sources."
Midfielder Ilkay Gundogan's future is also uncertain with the German international in the final 18 months of his contract but not yet ready to sign a new deal.
"Always when he was able to play a lot of games he is an incredibly important player," Guardiola said. "He knows what we want, he knows what we think about him but it's the same as other cases like we said in the past. At the end, the last decision is not in our hands.
"We try to speak with him, we want him to extend the contract right now. Yesterday would have been better than today, and today better than tomorrow. But if he doesn't want to, we cannot do anything else."