Maresca says the Ghana winger was hurt in City's 3-2 win over Ipswich and will miss the AEK Athens game.
Ghana international winger Antoine Semenyo faces up to eight weeks out with a knee injury, Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca confirmed at his press conference on Monday. The problem came in City's 3-2 Premier League win over Ipswich Town at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
Semenyo was brought on from the bench in the closing stages and was hurt shortly afterwards. Maresca said City had planned to rest him: "Antoine was one of the players we wanted to rest, he played 10-15 minutes, and then he got injured."
There were early fears of a severe, long-term problem, and the scan changed that picture. Maresca's relief came through clearly at his press conference:
"After the scan we feel much better because it's not as bad as we expected."
Maresca described the injury itself in plainer terms: "Yeah it is collateral. It's not a muscle problem." The Manchester Evening News describes a collateral injury as a sprain or tear of the ligaments on either side of the knee.
He also gave a timeline of up to eight weeks, with Semenyo expected to return in December.
Norwegian striker Erling Haaland scored twice in the win, but went straight down the tunnel after a heavy challenge with Jack Clarke in stoppage time. Maresca said after the match: "Erling said he was OK." Ahead of the AEK game, he said: "[Erling] can be available. We will see."
Matheus Nunes, Mateo Kovacic and Nico O'Reilly also came off during the win. Asked about the other three, Maresca said: "The rest are more or less okay."
With the Champions League in mind, Maresca also pointed to workloads: "We need to pay attention to workloads. That is why we will do some changes tomorrow." He reviewed the Ipswich win too, where City conceded few chances: "If you analyse the last game against Ipswich, how many chances did we concede? Not many."
City host AEK Athens on Tuesday, after losing their previous Champions League game to PSG. Maresca said: "It is a huge game tomorrow for us. Unfortunately we lost the last one, so we need to win this one."
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