The 29-year-old missed a vast majority of last season after tearing his ACL against Premier League rivals Arsenal, coinciding with a remarkable loss of form for Man City.
Rodri again went off in their 4-3 FIFA Club World Cup defeat to Al-Hilal this summer and is yet to make a recovery.
Speaking to the press ahead of their pre-season friendly with Palmero on Saturday, Guardiola revealed he’s expecting to be out until September.
"Rodri is getting better but he had a big injury in the last game against Al Hilal. He has trained better in the last few days, hopefully after the international break is when he will be really fit," he said.
"Hopefully in these games he can play some minutes but what is important is he doesn't have pain because we don't want this Rodri coming back injured.
"We try desperately to avoid that. He has been training the last two sessions with us and that's good."