Manchester City's rising-star Gabriel Jesus has revealed this week that he is still playing with fear, after his long injury lay-off.

The Brazilian revealed that he was still scared of injuring himself again after his recent two-month layoff, following the knee injury he picked up at Crystal Palace on New Year's Eve:

“When you are in the game, without wanting it, you end up thinking about the previous game where you got injured, you have a bit of fear,” said Jesus.

“But, as you are playing more and more, you are going to get that fear away and play your football."

“I still played with some fear, there's some movements when I still have some fear about getting injured again.

I know anything can happen, but I'm sure that the more you play, the easier that fear is going to go away.”

The 20-year-old was seen in tears when his knee was injured at Palace, with Jesus clearly believing that the injury may have been serious enough to keep him out of the Brazilian world cup squad this summer.

Since joining Manchester City, Jesus hasn't had the best of luck with injuries. After joining City last season the Brazilian also missed three months with a broken metatarsal in the last campaign.

Jesus looking to shine with Brazil this summer

Luckily for Jesus, his most recent injury proved to be not as bad as he first thought.

However, the youngster says he still needs more time to feel completely comfortable again, with the fear of missing out on the World Cup still playing on the young striker's mind.

In order to get over his injury worries, Jesus has turned to his legendary compatriot Ronaldo, whose career was also plagued by knee problems. Jesus may have also asked Ronaldo for advice heading into the World Cup, as he looks to emulate the Brazil legend at this year's Russia tournament.

Jesus has already earned his spot back into Pep Guardiola's side, with multiple substitute appearances, the first being against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final, before making his first start for over two months against Basel this week.

He scored the opening goal in the 2-1 defeat, showing signs of returning to the scintillating form that earned him his first call-up to the senior national team last season.

Jesus is expected to be involved in Brazilian boss Tite's squad for Russia this summer, especially if he re-finds the form that has brought him 15 Premier League goals so far in his Manchester City career.

Jesus' Brazilian side will be filled with star names this summer and will once again be among the favourites for the competition. Brazil will face off against Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia, in a group that most would expect the five-time winners of the competition to get out of.
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