Man City's Benjamin Mendy Steps Up Recovery From ACL Knee Injury in Under-23s Match

Benjamin Mendy is finally closing in on a Manchester City first team return, after he stepped up his recovery from a cruciate knee ligament injury.

Benjamin Mendy is finally closing in on a Manchester City first team return, after he stepped up his recovery from a cruciate knee ligament injury.

The full back has been sidelined for the best part of seven months after he suffered the terrible injury during City's 5-0 victory over Crystal Palace on 23rd September.

However, Mendy took part in an Under-23s match against bitter rivals Manchester United on Friday - a run out that saw the defender complete 45 minutes - and he took to Twitter in the wake of his first appearance since late September to express his delight and show off his typically humorous attitude:

Mendy's run out at City's academy stadium saw him complete a couple of lung busting runs down the left flank to the delight of the assembled crowd, and showed that he was almost ready to figure for Pep Guardiola's team once more.

It has been an arduous and slow journey back to full fitness for the 23-year-old, who only joined the Premier League leaders last summer from Monaco for a fee in the region of £52m.

Mendy feature in five matches for City's senior side before disaster struck against the Eagles, but he showed his versatility in being able to fill in on the left side of midfield in the 5-0 win over Liverpool as well as his customary left back position.

Guardiola has deployed a number of auxiliary full backs in that problematic role in Mendy's absence, with Fabian Delph, Danilo, Aymeric Laporte and Oleksandr Zinchenko all featuring at left back to varying degrees of success.

It is highly likely that Mendy won't be rushed back into action by Guardiola, especially with the defender eyeing a late run for the French squad that will feature at this summer's World Cup in Russia.

He will, however, hope to give the ex-Monaco starlet a couple of appearances from the bench to continue his rehabilitation into the first team fold, and allow Mendy to play a small part in helping City lift the league title at the end of this term.