Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini expects to discover the severity of Fabian Delph’s hamstring injury today after the midfielder left the field on a stretcher during the 4-1 pre-season defeat to Real Madrid.

Delph lasted less than 20 minutes after a tussle with Luka Modric resulted in his early exit in Melbourne. City will now face an anxious wait to determine the severity of the injury to their £8 million (Dh46.5m) signing, with their opening Premier League match against West Brom just over two weeks away.

“Unfortunately, it looks like Fabian has a problem with his hamstring – we thought it would be useful for him to play 45 minutes but he got the injury so it’s not the best news,” Pellegrini said. “We will have a more clear diagnostic from the doctor tomorrow.” 

The City boss was not too concerned following the heavy defeat by Real at the MCG after fielding an under-strength side.

Eliaquim Mangala did not feature after falling ill ahead of kickoff while Martin Demichelis, Sergio Aguero, Fernandinho, Pablo Zabaleta, Wilfried Bony and Vincent Kompany were also absent from the side. It meant Jason Denayer partnered 16-year-old Cameron Humphreys in defence against a formidable frontline of Cristiano Ronaldo, Isco, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema.

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“We knew that it was difficult to play against a team with such good attackers without Mangala, Kompany and Demichelis,” Pellegrini said. “You must also add the other players who are not here: Bony, Aguero, Fernandinho and Zabaleta.

“Especially defending, we knew it would be a difficult game. Mangala was sick this morning so he could not play and Kompany is becoming a father again so is not here.

“I’m not concerned as we had a lot of missing players and then a lot of players have also arrived late so they’ve worked just five days.”

City goalkeeper Joe Hart is also not reading too much into the disjointed performance against Real. He said: “It’s pre-season at the end of the day. We can’t get too wrapped up in the result. A lot of us haven’t had many minutes and we’re still missing the South American guys so we’re still going to get stronger for the start of the season.”