Man City's Dias set to miss Atletico & Liverpool games- says Guardiola

The Cityzens will be missing Ruben Dias for critical games against Atletico Madrid and Liverpool, according to

Pep Guardiola

. 

Dias has been out since sustaining a hamstring injury in the

triumph against Peterborough United on March 1, and he was expected to be out for four to six weeks. 

With

playing Atletico Madrid in the

on either side of a

match against title rivals Liverpool, it looks the Portuguese defender will be available sooner than Guardiola had intended.

The first fixture is against Burnley on Saturday, with Dias confirmed as a non-starter. 

"I don't know," Guardiola said, when quizzed on how much longer Dias faced on the sidelines.

"The doctor said four to six weeks. I think we need 10 more days, two weeks more. Everything is going well."

The first leg of Atletico's quarter-final will take place on Tuesday at the Etihad Stadium, with Liverpool heading to town on Sunday, April 10, three days before Guardiola's side returns to European action in Madrid. 

Dias may struggle to play any role in those three encounters, which are followed by an FA Cup semi-final on April 16 at Wembley, again against Liverpool. 

Despite the fact that Dias is an important part of Guardiola's first-team plans, his unavailability from four Premier League matches this season has had little impact.

City have triumphed three times and drew once in four games without him (average points: 2.5), whereas they have won 19, drawn three times, and lost three times with Dias in the side (average points: 2.4) — but the sample sizes are drastically different. 

Without Dias, Pep's team would have reason to be cautiously hopeful about winning three points against Burnley. 

Burnley have only collected one point from the next 11 matches versus City in the Premier League after gaining five points from the first 12 available (W1 D2 L1) (D1 L10). 

Indeed, City has won their past nine encounters with Burnley by a combined score of 32-1 in all competitions.

Follow 

for the