Kevin De Bruyne Limps Off with Apparent Leg Injury vs. Tottenham

Manchester City were handed a fresh injury blow on Saturday, as Kevin De Bruyne hobbled out of their Premier League showdown with Tottenham Hotspur.

City confirmed the substitution, with Fernandinho coming on to replace De Bruyne in the first half of the 1-0 victory that sent the champions back to the top of the table:

Joe Prince-Wright of NBC Sports provided more details:

The Belgian is among the Sky Blues' most influential players.

His vision, creativity and almost unrivalled ability to play incisive balls in the final third have won City matches time and again, providing their potent attacking stars with more ammunition than most players can hope for.

In his absence, City will look to the likes of David Silva, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez to compensate, in addition to Ilkay Gundogan and Fernandinho. With that wealth of talent in mind, City should be capable of coping.

De Bruyne has already missed a significant portion of the season through injury, so he will be especially disappointed by this latest issue. He played his best game of the campaign on Wednesday, setting up three of City's four goals in the 4-3 win over Spurs in the UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg, although the Manchester side were eliminated on away goals.

With Pep Guardiola's men still in contention for the Premier League and the FA Cup, he will be hoping the injury isn't too serious.