It is barely a month since Rodri stood on a podium in North America clutching the Golden Ball as the best player of the 2026 World Cup. Now, ONE reports, Manchester City's Spanish anchor is heading into surgery on a back problem with no target date to return.
The Israeli outlet cites English media reporting that City have opted for an operation rather than conservative treatment, with the club yet to issue any official medical bulletin of its own. The lack of a public timeline, ONE notes, points to a recovery being planned around the player's long-term health rather than a rush back for the start of the season.
It is a cruelly familiar pattern for the 30-year-old. Rodri ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in September 2024, a injury that wiped out almost his entire 2024-25 campaign and denied him the chance to defend his Ballon d'Or. When he did return, hamstring and groin problems kept interrupting his rhythm, limiting him to 33 appearances in all competitions last season.
None of that was visible in Spain's colours this summer. Rodri started all eight of his country's matches at the World Cup as La Roja lifted the trophy for the first time since 2010, and he left the tournament, by all accounts, in excellent physical shape. The timing of a new setback so soon afterwards will sting all the more for that.
The blow lands at an already delicate moment for Manchester City. Pep Guardiola stepped down as manager in the summer, with former assistant Enzo Maresca returning to the Etihad Stadium to take charge of the club's first season in the post-Guardiola era. Losing his defensive midfield lynchpin for an unknown stretch is not the start Maresca would have chosen.
City are due to open their Premier League campaign at home to Bournemouth on August 23, and question marks now hang over whether Rodri will be fit to feature in the opening weeks, or well beyond them.
Then there is the contract question that refuses to go away. Rodri's current deal at City runs only to the summer of 2027, and talks over an extension — expected to resume once the World Cup was out of the way — have shown no sign of progress.
Real Madrid speculation has trailed him for months, with some Spanish reports suggesting he would welcome a return home, even as outlets in England have played down any concrete interest from the Bernabéu this window. A move did not materialise this summer, but with his contract now entering its final two years, the uncertainty over Rodri's long-term future at City is unlikely to fade — surgery or no surgery.
For now, the more immediate concern for Maresca is simpler: finding a way to cover the loss of the player who, more than perhaps anyone else at the club, has defined City's midfield control since Guardiola made him the pivot of his system.
