Mateo Kovacic says Manchester City need to adapt to life without Rodri after scoring twice in their nervy 3-2 victory over Fulham on Saturday.
The Cityzens were made to work for the three points at the Etihad Stadium, with Andreas Pereira putting the Cottagers ahead in the first half before Kovacic's brace helped the hosts take the lead in the second 45 minutes.
There was still time for Jeremy Doku and Rodrigo Muniz to strike and round off the scoring, but the victory means City remain just one point behind current league leaders Liverpool. They are also level with Arsenal, sitting ahead in second having scored more goals.
Spanish playmaker Rodri is out for the 2024/25 campaign after suffering a severe knee ligament injury last month in a major blow to City's hopes of winning a fifth league title in a row.
Speaking after Saturday's win, Kovacic revealed: "I am playing there in the middle at the moment and of course we need to cover for Rodri, we miss him a lot. I think any team would miss him, the player that he is, and we wish him a speedy recovery and hope he comes back in as good a shape as possible.
"For now we have to adapt and for sure the manager has a lot of options so we can rotate.
"It was a tough game like every game in the Premier League, we always say that there are no easy games. We dominated in the beginning and couldn't score, conceded the goal and then came back quickly. In the end we won it and it was a tough game against an opponent in good form, so for us it is good to continue winning."
Speaking about Kovacic, manager Pep Guardiola added: "He is not a top goalscorer but he maybe saw how many goals Rodri has scored in that position and did copy and paste. He scored two fantastic goals."
City's first game after the October international break is a trip to Wolves, who sit at the bottom of the table after seven matches.
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