Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has confirmed that club captain Vincent Kompany has returned to partial training ahead of the top of the table clash against Leicester City, but the Chilean also revealed that Eliaquim Mangala has suffered another injury setback and will be sidelined for another few weeks.
The Citizens will be without the services of six key players for tomorrow’s home clash against Claudio Ranieri’s league leaders.
Kevin De Bruyne suffered a knee injury in his side’s 3-1 win over Everton in the second leg of the League Cup semi-final on 27th January and is expected to be sidelined for eight to ten weeks.
Jesus Navas has picked up a hamstring injury and is set to miss three weeks of football, while long term absentee Samir Nasri is also not close to a first team return.
Pellegrini has confirmed that the club have now been able to identify the injury to Kompany and is looking forward to the return of his captain; the Etihad outfit currently have only 14 fit first team players in the squad.
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Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Pellegrini said: ”Kompany and Mangala both started working partially with the squad – unfortunately Mangala has another injury and he’ll be another couple of weeks.
“I hope after another week, Vincent will be back working with the squad fully.
“We know exactly what happened with the injury to Vincent now.
“The risk for the future is exactly the same as it is with every player.
“It’s important now for Vincent to start playing again as we have just 14 senior players. That’s not so many for so many games.
“Navas has a muscle injury in his hamstring. He’ll be out for a minimum of three weeks."i
The 62-year-old also revealed that they didn’t expect Wilfried Bony to be sidelined for so long, but his situation will be clear on Monday.
“We didn’t expect Bony to be out for so long but I hope next Monday we will see a full medical report.
“He’s improving a lot but it’s an inflammation of the bone which is bringing him a lot of pain. We’ll see if he can start working with the squad next week.”
Leicester City are currently three points ahead of Pellegrini’s side in the league table, but a win for the Citizens will put the two sides on level terms.
