Rodri to Undergo Back Surgery as Manchester City Enters New Era

Enzo Maresca’s first significant act as Manchester City manager is not a signing, a tactical reveal, or a bold declaration of intent. It is an admission that his most important midfielder, fresh from conquering the world with Spain, is heading for the operating table.

Rodri, the heartbeat of both club and country, will undergo surgery on a back problem on Monday, Maresca confirmed at his unveiling.

The timing underlines the strain of the past two years.

The 30-year-old has just carried Spain to World Cup glory, captaining his nation and walking away with the Golden Ball as the tournament’s outstanding player. At international level, he looked like the complete midfielder again – authoritative, composed, relentless.

At club level, the story has been far more fractured.

Rodri’s last two seasons with City were shredded by injury. An anterior cruciate ligament issue ruled him out for most of the 2024-25 campaign, and a series of setbacks last season meant he was in and out of the side, never allowed a sustained rhythm. For a player whose game is built on control, the stop-start nature of his club football cut deep.

Immediate Plan

In front of the cameras for the first time as City boss, Maresca laid out the immediate plan.

“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 detailed timeline. No return date circled. Just a clear sequence: operate, disconnect, rebuild.

For City, the equation is simple but brutal. The man who knits together their possession, who protects the defence and starts almost every attack, will be missing again for a spell just as a new manager tries to impose his ideas. For Maresca, who knows the importance of a deep-lying controller from his coaching education, it is a complicated start.

Yet if the injury bulletin raised concerns, the transfer noise around Rodri drew a very different type of question. Reports in the past week have linked the Ballon d'Or winner with Real Madrid, a predictable tug from Spain’s capital towards one of the game’s elite midfielders.

Maresca batted it away with the kind of calm City will want from him on the touchline.

“Around big players there are always speculations so I am not worried about that,” he said.

He did not indulge the rumour, did not fuel it, simply placed Rodri where City see him: at the centre of their plans.

“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.”

That last line felt less like flattery and more like a statement of fact. Managers build systems around players like this. They do not casually let them go.

For now, the immediate future is defined not by transfer sagas but by medical reports and rehabilitation schedules. Rodri will step away, finally take the rest his body has been demanding, and then attempt to return as the same domineering presence who just bossed a World Cup.

Maresca, meanwhile, must shape a new City with the knowledge that his midfield general is temporarily out of the picture – but still very much at the heart of his long-term vision.