Man City players’ İlkay Gündoğan shirt tribute mocked by rival fans

It's difficult not to feel sorry for Manchester City's İlkay Gündoğan.

The former Borussia Dortmund midfielder appears set for another lengthy spell on the sidelines after sustaining knee ligament damage in City's midweek victory over Watford, just months after recovering from the dislocated patella that delayed his debut for Pep Guardiola's side. The German international - who also missed over a year of football after picking up a back injury at the start of the 2013/14 season - has impressed in his early weeks at the Etihad, and his teammates were keen to show him that their thoughts were with him as he begins his recovery. As they walked out on to the Etihad field ahead of their match with Arsenal on Sunday afternoon, each City player wore a shirt bearing Gündoğan's name and squad number. Although many football fans will hope to see the player make a speedy recovery from the injury, many felt the tribute to the him was slightly over the top. https://twitter.com/_boothoir/status/810516774236078080 https://twitter.com/AAllenSport/status/810514446439288832 https://twitter.com/barrydempsey2/status/810514389170352128 https://twitter.com/KelechiNacho/status/810514198346289153 https://twitter.com/paullawson_/status/810514003944468480 https://twitter.com/lewiscottrill_/status/810513909669130240 https://twitter.com/FawcusJack/status/810517759985586177 Although (as pointed out by the tweets above) the injury isn't life-threatening, reports have already indicated that Gündoğan is expected to miss the remainder of this season with the injury. For a player that's suffered more than his fair share of misfortune with injury, you can understand why his teammates wanted to show that their thoughts were with him. Needless to say, we hope to see him back in action as soon as possible. Catch up with this week's episode of Football Friday Live: