Pep Guardiola admits Manchester City are “stronger” with Kevin De Bruyne, with the 2019 Treble winners hoping to see an “incredible” talent steer clear of further injury issues.
Having starred for the Blues in 2017-18, the Belgium international midfielder endured a testing campaign last time out.
De Bruyne was restricted to just 11 Premier League starts and 31 appearances across all competitions, but the 28-year-old is now back to full fitness and working on his sharpness during pre-season.
He took in an impressive 45-minute outing against Wolves in the Premier League Asia Trophy final on Saturday, with Guardiola talking up his value after the contest.
"He's been top," said the City boss.
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"Unfortunately last season we missed him a lot. We did incredibly well without him but we are stronger with him.
"Last season he didn't have holiday but he has had more time to rest and he came back like he did two seasons ago. Hopefully he can keep his level.
"He's incredibly positive in his mind and his quality speaks for itself. He made an incredible first half, really good.
"He's a guy who likes to play football. He's a huge competitor. What we want now is to be calm and not get injuries. Today was another game and we finished without that.
"Especially what happens last season with him with a lot of injuries, be calm step by step. He never lost his confidence as a player even with what happened last season but for the physical condition - don't get injured.
"That is the most important thing, the rest we know his quality especially when he is positive in his mind. He is incredible as a player so I'm not going to discover his quality."
De Bruyne was unable to help City to another trophy during a keenly-fought clash with Wolves.
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Penalties proved to be the Blues’ undoing, as Raheem Sterling missed from 12 yards in normal time before three more failures from the spot in a shootout defeat.
French defender Aymeric Laporte admitted his City side that enjoyed domestic dominance last season have much to work on, saying: "I think it's pre-season we have to keep working to be ready for the season in the final two [friendlies] and that's most important.
"We make a good jump but the result wasn't good, so we have to improve.
"Football is sometimes like today and we have to improve for next time. I don't know, the goalkeeper did a good job.
"I think, the first-half it was good we were better than them but we didn't score and the most important is to score. We missed a penalty obviously it could be better for us but it's okay.
"It's pre-season we have to improve and keep working."