Rodolfo Borrell says Manchester City want to play our FA Cup third round tie against Swindon Town despite seven players being unavailable following a Covid-19 outbreak at the Club.

Fourteen members of staff are also self-isolating after testing positive for the virus, including Pep Guardiola and his assistant Juanma Lillo, which means Borrell will take charge of the team at the County Ground on Friday evening.

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The Spaniard admits City are taking each day as it comes, but, despite the disruption, he says we are mentally prepared and ready to play the game with the players we have available.

“At the moment we have seven players unavailable and up to 14 staff, so it’s quite a big outbreak,” Borrell said as he deputised for Guardiola at the pre-match press conference.

“We will play with the ones we have available, we don’t have much more, but our aim is to keep playing as much as we can, trying to respect all competitions.

“At this moment we can fill the team. I don’t know what will happen in the following days but right now it’s an easy line-up to decide.

“We will play with what we’ve got, we have some first team players and some others that will come from our second team.

“We have to prepare for the game to happen. If then tomorrow for whatever reason it is not possible because of more news, this is out of our reach to know now.

“But right now, we are prepared to play the game and we have been preparing all days and we are mentally ready for it.”

That has been complicated by the fact that Brian Barry-Murphy’s team have also been affected by a Coronavirus outbreak and City will have to contend with an additional absentee in the form of Riyad Mahrez, who is away with Algeria at the African Cup of Nations.

But, despite travelling with a depleted squad, Borrell says there will be no excuse for his side on Friday night.

“To fill in the whole squad and travel with at least five, six subs, we had to bring in some players from the second team,” he added.

“But also the outbreak involves players from the second team so the situation is not that easy.

“The second team also had plenty of Covid cases, staff as well, but there’s no excuse.

“We travel with the team, it will be a mixture of both (senior and EDS), and we will obviously go for the win and try to get the best out of the game.”