Nasri excluded from City friendlies to focus on weight loss

Samir Nasri has been outed as one of the Manchester City players packing a few extra pounds.

Pep Guardiola dismissed Gael Clichy's claims on Wednesday that certain players who reported to preseason training overweight were set for a rude awakening, and that pizza and other heavy foodstuffs were off the menu indefinitely.

Related: Guardiola banishes pudgy players from Manchester City training

But now the Spaniard has conceded that Nasri has been sporting a roly-poly physique on the tour of China, hence his exclusion from the warm-up matches thus far.

"Sami arrived a little bit overweight but he's much, much better now," Guardiola said after Thursday's penalty shootout defeat of Borussia Dortmund. "Still there is a little bit of weight. Last season he was injured and we want to avoid that.

"The players that are on the pitch they are fit, their weight is in the right place to arrive at many minutes like Tosin (Adarabioyo) today or like Fernandinho or like (Aleksandar) Kolarov and all the other ones. But hopefully in the next two weeks he will be right with us."

Sergio Aguero finished off a beautiful passing move on 79 minutes to give City the lead in Shenzhen, but an injury-time equaliser from Dortmund teenager Christian Pulisic led the match into a penalty shootout. Heroics from 20-year-old Angus Gunn between the sticks ensured Guardiola's side nicked the win, though.

Overall, the new manager has been impressed by what he's seen of his City squad since assuming control, and believes it's in good stead to grow into a considerable force in the Premier League and on the continent.

City starts the 2016-17 Premier League season with a visit from Sunderland on Aug. 13.