Rodri to Undergo Back Surgery as Maresca Begins Manchester City Tenure

Enzo Maresca’s first significant act as Manchester City manager is not a signing, a tactical manifesto or a bold declaration of intent. It is confirming that the heartbeat of the team, World Cup winner Rodri, is heading for the operating table.

The Spain captain will undergo surgery on a back issue on Monday, Maresca revealed at his first City news conference, drawing a sharp line between the glory of last week and the reality of the months ahead.

Just days ago, Rodri was at the summit of the game. He led Spain to World Cup triumph, dictated the tournament from midfield and walked away with the Golden Ball as the standout player. It was the perfect response from a footballer whose last two club seasons have been anything but smooth.

An anterior cruciate ligament injury wrecked the bulk of his 2024-25 campaign. When he did return, a series of setbacks meant he was in and out of the side, never allowed to build the relentless rhythm that once made him City’s metronome.

At the World Cup, that rhythm came roaring back. He controlled matches again, the calm in the storm, the player who always seemed to have half a second more than everyone else. City fans could be forgiven for thinking the worst was behind him.

Not quite.

“Now, [he has] surgery on Monday. Then he needs a holiday, he needs to rest and recover and then he will be back with us,” Maresca said, outlining a simple but sobering timeline: operation, recuperation, and only then a return to the Etihad pitch.

He did not put a date on that return. No talk of weeks or months. No promises. Just the clear message that City will be without their midfield anchor for a spell, and that his recovery will not be rushed.

What Maresca did move quickly to shut down, though, was the noise around Rodri’s future.

In the wake of Spain’s World Cup win and his Golden Ball recognition, speculation surfaced again about Real Madrid’s interest. The links are inevitable: a Spanish superstar, a dominant midfielder, the Bernabéu always lurking in the background.

Maresca was unmoved.

“Around big players there are always speculations so I am not worried about that,” he said. “I think it is normal, also because they [Spain] won the World Cup and because he is one of the best players. I think every manager wants to have Rodri because he is a top player.”

That last line was as much a statement of admiration as it was a reminder of reality. City know exactly what they have. Maresca knows exactly who he is inheriting.

For now, though, he inherits a problem as well as a prize. The midfield structure that has defined City’s modern era will need reshaping while Rodri recovers from back surgery and takes the holiday his body clearly needs.

The new manager’s tactical ideas will come. So will the debates over systems and roles. But they will all be framed by one central question: how quickly can City’s cornerstone get back to full fitness, and how much will the champions have to change while they wait for their Golden Ball winner to walk back into the side?