John Stones’s Manchester City future will be reliant on the defender’s fitness, according to Pep Guardiola. The England international’s contract expires in the summer and the club must decide if he deserves an extension after an injury-hit spell at the Etihad Stadium.

The 31-year-old recently said he contemplated retirement last season due to fitness problems, which resulted in him making only 11 Premier League appearances and missing the final three months of the campaign with a hamstring injury. Stones was an unused substitute for City’s past two league matches but will hope to return to the starting lineup against former club Everton on Saturday, having featured twice for England during the international break.

“The club will decide what is best for John, we will see how he performs,” Guardiola said. “When John is fit, he is part of the group, the starting XI and the year of the treble [he] was unbelievable but since then he has not had the consistency in [number of] games. He’s been injured many times so that is why we have to wait and see.”

Guardiola has previously said he needs players who are...