Pep Guardiola is hopeful that Vincent Kompany has not suffered a serious injury after the Manchester City defender left the pitch in the dying seconds of an EFL Cup 2-1 victory over Swansea City.
Kompany walked off in injury time, despite City having used all three substitutions, shortly after Gylfi Sigurdsson scored a late goal for the Swans.
The 30-year-old was making his first appearance in more than four months since picking up the thigh strain in the Champions League semifinal against Real Madrid that ruled him out of Euro 2016.
Kompany has been dogged by injuries in the past two seasons -- starting just 20 of City's 59 games last campaign and 31 games of the 51 matches in 2014-15 -- and Guardiola is hoping he has not suffered another major setback.
"Hopefully it will not be a big, big problem, but we are going to wait for the result of the doctor and still I don't have that," Guardiola told a news conference. "It's not easy after a long, long time without playing and defensively he was so strong and played really good.
"I didn't see when they score a goal and after I see he's coming here and I said 'what's happened?' He said "I go to the locker room.'
"I suppose if he had little bit of a problem then hopefully it will not be such a big problem. So we have to wait.
"If he's injured he's injured and cannot stay on the pitch."
It was the low point of another great night for Guardiola, who extended his perfect start at City with a ninth win out of nine.
Gael Clichy opened the scoring with a deflected goal before 19-year-old Aleix Garcia added a second with a neat finish.
German international Leroy Sane made his first start for the club while young Spanish forward Brahim Diaz, who turned 17 last month, made his debut from the bench.
Clichy, who scored just his second goal for the club, told the club's official website: "Overall we controlled the game but we didn't start well. The first half wasn't good enough but then we started to play in the second half.
"The victory is the most important thing though because if you lose you are out of the competition so now we can rest and look forward to Saturday.
"The first half wasn't good enough but in the second half we came back with more desire so we have to keep playing like this. It was a good night for everybody including the young players and everyone is happy now."
City will now face Jose Mourinho's Manchester United at Old Trafford in the fourth round on Oct. 25 or 26.