MANCHESTER, England -- Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said Leroy Sane's knee injury is set to rule him out for "six or seven months."
The Germany winger suffered the injury during the Community Shield victory over Liverpool at Wembley on Sunday and will undergo surgery in Barcelona next week.
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Guardiola said he expects to be without the 23-year-old until after Christmas. Sane had been linked with a summer move to Bayern Munich throughout the transfer window, which closed for Premier League clubs on Thursday.
"Normally this kind of injury is six or seven months," Guardiola told a news conference on Friday ahead of his side's Premier League opener against West Ham.
"Hopefully in February or March he can be back with us. I didn't think about him leaving. Always I said he's our player and he didn't tell me he wanted to leave, always I thought he was ours.
"It's bad news and in three seasons we've had three ACL [injuries]. He's young and he will recover well hopefully. All the people will help him, he will feel alone and we help him to feel as comfortable as possible."
City kick off their campaign with a trip to West Ham on Saturday a week after lifting the Community Shield with a penalty shoot-out victory over Liverpool.
Riyad Mahrez missed the game at Wembley because of fears he could fail a doping test after taking an unknown sinus medication while playing for Algeria at the Africa Cup of Nations, but will return to the squad at the London Stadium.
Aymeric Laporte is also fit after recovering from a knock picked up in training.
"Last season West Ham finished well," Guardiola said. "Manuel [Pellegrini] has quality in identifying the way he plays. In the start it was not easy [for him], they lost the first three or four games but he's a calm person and the board supported him.
"He made good results at the end of the season -- [against] Tottenham, Watford. The quality in his teams and the quality of the players up front, they've got many good players. It's the first game. Playing away is tricky but we are ready."
Guardiola also confirmed that David Silva will replace Vincent Kompany as club captain after a vote among players this week. Fernandinho, Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero will act as vice-captains to Silva, who is entering his final season in Manchester after joining the club from Valencia in 2010.
"He has to be himself, David has to be himself and make decisions for the team," Guardiola said. "He will be a good captain."