Rodri to Undergo Surgery as Maresca Begins Manchester City Tenure
Enzo Maresca’s first significant act as Manchester City manager is not a signing, a tactical tweak or a bold declaration. It is confirming that the heartbeat of City’s midfield is heading for the operating table.
Rodri, fresh from lifting the World Cup with Spain and collecting the Golden Ball as the tournament’s outstanding player, will undergo surgery on a back problem on Monday.
The timing is stark. A week ago he was on top of the world. Now he is facing another spell of rehabilitation.
From World Champion to Operating Room
At 30, Rodri has just delivered the kind of international tournament that defines careers. Spain’s captain drove his country to World Cup glory, dictating games with the same authority City fans have grown used to when he is in sky blue.
Yet his club career over the past two seasons has told a very different story.
An anterior cruciate ligament injury wiped out most of his 2024-25 campaign. Attempts to return to full fitness last season were repeatedly interrupted by setbacks, leaving City without their midfield anchor for long stretches. When he did play, there were flashes of the old control, but nowhere near the relentless presence that made him a Ballon d'Or winner.
At the World Cup, that version returned. Dominant, composed, decisive. It looked like a reset.
Instead, as Maresca sat down for his first news conference as City boss, he revealed the next chapter.
“Now, [he has] surgery on Monday. Then he needs a holiday, he needs to rest and recover and then he will be back with us,” the Italian said.
No drama in the delivery. Just the cold reality of a player who has carried enormous physical and mental load for club and country now needing his body fixed again.
No Return Date, No Doubt Over His Future
Maresca chose not to put a date on Rodri’s comeback. There was no timeline, no rough month, not even a hint.
That silence will concern City supporters who watched their side look vulnerable whenever he was missing in recent seasons. Rodri is not simply another midfielder; he is the system’s reference point, the one who knits together defence and attack, the one who calms chaos.
Questions, inevitably, have swirled around his future too. Reports in the past week have linked him with Real Madrid, a familiar gravitational pull for Spain’s biggest stars.
Maresca brushed that away.
“Around big players there are always speculations so I am not worried about that,” he said. “I think it is normal, also because they [Spain] won the World Cup and because he is one of the best players. I think every manager wants to have Rodri because he is a top player.”
Clear, firm, and pointed. City see Rodri as central to their plans, even if he is temporarily absent.
City’s First Big Test Under Maresca
For Maresca, this is an early examination of his ability to adapt. Taking over a side so used to Rodri’s influence and then losing him, even for part of a season, changes everything.
The structure of City’s midfield, the way they control tempo, the protection in front of the back line – all of it has revolved around the Spaniard. Without him, City have often looked human.
The surgery, the holiday, the rest, the recovery – it all now sits on a timeline that will shape City’s opening months under their new coach.
Rodri has already proved he can climb back to the summit after a brutal injury run. The World Cup reminded everyone of that. The question now is not whether he remains one of the best in the world.
It is how long City must wait before their new era can truly begin with their old metronome back at its centre.
