Pep Guardiola blames England U20s for ‘pushing the limits’ with injured teenage prodigy – who hasn’t even played a professional game! – as Man City boss reignites FA feud

Pep Guardiola escalated his war with the FA after taking aim at their treatment of a teenager defender while on England duty.

The Manchester City boss was agitated by 19-year-old Max Alleyne – who has never played a professional game – returning from the international break with fitness problems and blames England.

Alleyne will be out for a month after playing twice for England’s Under 20s when his manager claimed he was unfit.

Guardiola stressed disappointment at a lack of communication between the relevant medical departments in a similar complaint to his anger at Jack Grealish’s senior call-up.

‘They pushed Max’s limits and he came back injured,’ Guardiola said. ‘They should be more in contact with the doctors of the national teams and the doctors from here.

‘If one player goes to the national team not in a perfect condition and trains with the Under 21s in the morning and in the afternoon with the Under 20s, and then plays two games when not fully fit, it’s normal that he is injured. We are going to lose him for three weeks to one month again.’

Guardiola was agitated by 19-year-old Max Alleyne (right) – who has never played a professional game – returning from the international break with fitness problems

Alleyne will be out for a month after playing twice for England’s Under 20s during the international break

City have a number of key players back in contention before Saturday’s clash with Tottenham but Mateo Kovacic rejoined the squad having picked up a problem while with Croatia.

Kovacic is set to miss a month after coming off during Croatia’s 1-1 draw with Portugal. Guardiola has Ilkay Gundogan, Rico Lewis and John Stones as potential replacements in the deeper midfield berth.

‘Some of them (will be back),’ he added. ‘John trained good yesterday, Manu (Akanji) trained good yesterday, Nathan (Ake) is coming back training.

‘I don’t know if they are ready to play 90 minutes or play from the beginning, but to see the training sessions and see their faces is a really good boost for us.’