Manchester City's Rodri dilemma: Why he's still not close to full fitness, the key to his recovery and what Pep Guardiola's one-on-one sessions with Nico Gonzalez reveal

Last year’s Ballon d’Or winner was being bundled through the backstage area of the Theatre du Chatelet clutching his weighty 18-carat gold statue and steadying his crutches. Always adept at juggling two or three things, Rodri.

He was in that dimly-lit corridor in the 19th century four-tiered playhouse on the bank of the Seine, talking briefly to Daily Mail Sport last October. Overcome with emotion, he was discussing a career-defining phone call with his father while he was floundering as a teenager at Villarreal, about how his dad had told him to keep the faith.

He was coming to terms with the realisation that he had become the first defensive midfielder to be voted the world’s best footballer. There was also plenty of realism and introspection, however, about a serious knee injury that occurred four weeks earlier in a league match at Arsenal.

‘It’s obviously a bad injury and the first time in my career that I have to switch on to recover and not hurry to come back,’ he said. ‘It would be a mistake to come back sooner just because I want to hurry up.’

Those are words that Manchester City and their fulcrum need to heed now because it looks clear that this current version of Rodri is nowhere close to the man gliding through games before the ACL rupture.

Guardiola has made it clear in recent days that Rodri cannot play three games in a week at anywhere near his top level and he only managed an hour during the disappointing and dramatic 2-2 draw at Monaco on Wednesday.

The Spaniard complained of soreness in his knee last week, missing the win over Burnley, and he seemed to quickly tire after taking a whack to the ribs on his return. There was a booking for dragging back Mamadou Coulibaly as Monaco broke quickly.

The counter emanated from an uncharacteristic Rodri mistake and he struggled to keep up with Coulibaly. He was withdrawn two minutes later.

But then City have this quandary with him. It is undoubted that, even with Rodri at half-tilt (he only won two of nine ground duels on Wednesday), they look a significantly better side for his inclusion. Whether that’s fear from the opposition, his organisational skills or an innate understanding of positional play (probably all of the above) doesn’t really matter.

Guardiola has to somehow find a way of making sure Rodri’s fitness doesn’t dip through a lack of playing time but also must make sure the midfielder is not overdoing it. Preserving him for the biggest matches without him going into them undercooked. Quite how you manage that feels like a mystery at the moment and City will argue that they tried their level best during the toughest week of the campaign so far.

Rodri started all three matches against Manchester United, Napoli and Arsenal last month. Seventy-six minutes in the derby, an hour against Napoli and then the whole lot during the rearguard action at the Emirates. He was reduced to walking at Arsenal, seeming like a prime candidate to come off shortly after half-time, and perhaps that effort proved too much.

He was always going to take a breather in the Carabao Cup at Huddersfield Town, with Nico Gonzalez deputising. Gonzalez, a £50million January signing from Porto, is finding his way within this squad and steadily improving. Although his high boot led to Monaco’s late penalty, he appeared to have held City together after his introduction.

Despite the fee, Guardiola sees him as a work in progress and undertook a three-minute coaching session with the 23-year-old on the Huddersfield pitch after full time of that victory in full view of supporters filing out of the stadium. Pointing, moving his body, the sort of stuff reserved for enclosed pitches at City’s training ground.

Trusting Gonzalez will allow for more leeway with Rodri, with Guardiola also pointing out that a year needs to pass before a player can even think of working their way back to their best following an ACL rupture. We’ve hit that year now.

City are allowing Rodri to dictate his fitness levels to them and it was a frank conversation late last week when the 29-year-old told the medical staff that pain in the knee would make Burnley too much of a risk.

'It is step by step, 90 minutes was too much for him,’ Guardiola said in Monaco while insisting that his withdrawal was not due to any new injury concerns.

Worries will exist though, after he did too much at the Club World Cup – featuring in consecutive games on a suspect pitch in Orlando – and finished the tournament with a setback that saw him eased into this season.

The twisting and turning that is required in that No 6 position makes a knee problem even more precarious and it is going to take some time for Rodri to fully trust his body again. It may be a case of having to manage him with care for a little while longer.