Mount and Foden are undroppable in my eyes but yeah having thought about it my bet is Sterling over Grealish and Rashford to miss out unless Mount plays deep with Rice which certainly won't happen in the knockouts.
Nose fracture and eye socket fracture. I definitely wouldn't be sure he recovers in time and if he somehow does he will surely have to wear a protective mask.
It was a cynical block to prevent him from running into space, which is a yellow. The fractured eye socket is unlucky, but doesn't necessarily make it a red.
He blocked him nearby the centre line, which is a yellow. Of course you can assume all kind of extra bad intentions, but that counts for nothing.. We would be fuming if Alderweireld gets a red for such a block, and rightly so.
Playing devil’s advocate: he had no intention of playing the ball, every intention of playing the man, and the man wound up hospitalised. That could be the dictionary definition of serious foul play. Not that I think Rudiger set out break his bones, but he definitely set out to foul him - and can have had no complaint if that choice had earned a red card, other than ‘isn’t that normally a yellow’. Which for me is an increasing problem in football (and one Man City themselves have long exploited. The disincentives for the cynical midfield foul are simply not big enough and need sorting out.
The outcome is very sad for De Bruyne and Man. City, but I don't think Rudiger took too much risk there, not enough for a red. It's a cynical block and every now and then it will injure the opponent, unlucky, but the challenge itself wasn't that reckless or dangerous.
