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It looks like Frank Lampard might not be suiting up for Manchester City.
Earlier today, Manchester City played Hamburg SV in a friendly match in Abu Dhabi. The match itself wasn't noteworthy. Manchester City won, 2-0. That said, this meaningless match proved costly for Manchester City, because Frank Lampard got injured during the warmup drills for the game.
20. Substitution for #mcfc as Frank Lampard is replaced by @Scotty_Sinclair #InAbuDhabi. #cityvhamburg
— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) January 21, 2015
LAMPARD UPDATE: Pellegrini confirms Lampard was "injured in the warm up" and taken off "as a precaution" #mcfc
— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) January 21, 2015
We don't know what the injury was. Earlier in the season, Lampard injured his thigh, which resulted in him missing several games. Clearly, this wasn't as serious, given that he managed to play twenty minutes before being subbed off by the rarely-seen Scott Sinclair, who once starred for Swansea.
Pellegrini himself was at pains to quash concerns in his post-game remarks:
"Frank was injured in the warm-up. He felt some problem in his muscle but I don’t think it will be very serious. We took him off just as a precaution.
"I hope that he will be fit, not only for Chelsea, but for the FA Cup [against Middlesbrough on Saturday].
"It was just a small problem, but he asked to try to play. After that he told us it was impossible but I don’t think that it will be a very important injury and we hope that we can have him for Saturday."
In any event, we'll keep an eye on this.