Manchester City's David Silva to be handed more time off to be with prematurely born son

Pep Guardiola has indicated that he will continue to give David Silva as much time off as he needs to be with his prematurely born son.

The Manchester City midfielder is set to return for tonight’s Premier League match at Stoke, having missed last Wednesday’s Champions League match against Basel to visit his family in his native Spain.

Silva’s son Mateo is “doing well”, according to Guardiola, having been fighting for his life in a Valencia hospital after being born prematurely in December.

Yessica Suarez Gonzalez, Silva’s partner, has remained out in Spain with their son, and the midfielder has missed a number of matches over the past three months to spend time with them.

Guardiola indicated that the Spain international would be allowed to miss City’s training break in Abu Dhabi, which follows the match at Stoke, in order to return to Valencia.

He said: “He wants to be here but sometimes he needs to come back and see his son and wife, who are doing well. He has to go there.

“Of course, he knows he has to train because you cannot play well if you don’t train for a long time.

“He trains on his own in Valencia when he goes there. Of course, for the game against Basel, he decided to go to Valencia.

“He came back and trained on Thursday. He will be ready to play against Stoke City and after that when we will go to Abu Dhabi, he will stay in Spain.

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“What has happened has happened. His family and son are the most important things. Hopefully he can sort it as soon as possible, his lovely kid can grow and grow and he can stay with us all day.”

Guardiola, meanwhile, has thanked Manchester City’s owners for standing by him when he failed to deliver any trophies in his first season at the club.

The manager is set to meet chairman Khaldoon al Mubarak in Abu Dhabi, although he is not expected to discuss the possibility of a new contract during the trip.

Guardiola has given no public indication as to whether he intends to stay beyond the end of his current deal when it expires in June 2019.

He has, though, made clear that he appreciates the support given to him from director of football Txiki Begiristain, chief executive Ferran Soriano and others within the City hierarchy.

Guardiola said: “The relationship is good, especially with Khaldoon. We are in touch a lot by telephone. He wants to know what happen but always accepts whatever I, Txiki and Ferran decide. “The club are good because now it is easy to support us when it is going well but it happened the same last season. That means a lot to me.

“In the bad moments, I saw how the club reacted and supported me and when I wanted to talk about plans for the future, they were there.

“There were no doubts about that. We had doubts because we didn’t win but not doubts about what we had to do. That was so important last season. I will not forget that.”