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| Yaya Toure (right) is back from injury for Manchester City |
SERGIO AGUERO will miss at least two more games for Manchester City but Yaya Toure is back.
Striker Aguero is still struggling with a heel injury the suffered against Southampton 10 days ago and will be sidelined for City's vital Champions League clash with Borussia Monchengladbach tomorrow (7.45pm) and the Premier League fixture against Swansea on Saturday.
Martin Demichelis and Fernando have joined City's lengthy injury list, which also includes Pablo Zabaleta, Samir Nasri and Patrick Roberts, but the one bit of good news is that influential midfielder Toure is back after missing the defeat at Stoke with a minor muscle injury. Klechi Iheanacho is ineligible because he wasn't included in City's UEFA squad because of the limits on overseas players.
The continued absences of Aguero and skipper Vincent Kompany remain the biggest concerns for City who are already qualified for the knock-stages but want to finish top in the hope of securing an easier draw in the last 16.
Martin Demichelis and Fernando have joined City's lengthy injury list, which also includes Pablo Zabaleta, Samir Nasri and Patrick Roberts, but the one bit of good news is that influential midfielder Toure is back after missing the defeat at Stoke with a minor muscle injury. Klechi Iheanacho is ineligible because he wasn't included in City's UEFA squad because of the limits on overseas players.
The continued absences of Aguero and skipper Vincent Kompany remain the biggest concerns for City who are already qualified for the knock-stages but want to finish top in the hope of securing an easier draw in the last 16.
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| Toure missed City's defeat to Stoke with a muscle injury |
To do that they need to beat in-form Monchengladbach – who beat Bayern Munich at the weekend and pray that Juventus lose in Seville.
Pellegrini said: “Sergio's is not a serious injury but it is a painful one. It is an injury that means he cannot work and he needs time to recover from the problem.
“We hope he can return to training this week but we will have to see how he improves in the next week. If he can run with normality he can do it.”
Pellegrini said: “Sergio's is not a serious injury but it is a painful one. It is an injury that means he cannot work and he needs time to recover from the problem.
“We hope he can return to training this week but we will have to see how he improves in the next week. If he can run with normality he can do it.”
Kompany has been missing for five of City’s six defeats this season but there is no sign of an immediate return from his persistent calf problem and Pellegrini dismissed suggestions his team are too defensively vulnerable without their skipper.
Pellegrini added: “Vincent is improving. He is doing some tests with his calf. We will see in the next days how he improves. Yaya is fit though. He had a very small muscle injury. It was not too long for him to recover so he is in the squad list.
"I don't agree that we can't defend without Vincent. Last season we finished the last six games without him, we won all six and had four clean sheets. It depends on the performance of individual players, it depends on a lot of things. In the last two years we played a lot of games without important players and still won them."
The City boss is demanding a huge improvement on Saturday’s performance at the Britannia Stadium where his team were ripped apart and could have lost more heavily than by the 2-0 margin.
Pellegrini added: “Vincent is improving. He is doing some tests with his calf. We will see in the next days how he improves. Yaya is fit though. He had a very small muscle injury. It was not too long for him to recover so he is in the squad list.
"I don't agree that we can't defend without Vincent. Last season we finished the last six games without him, we won all six and had four clean sheets. It depends on the performance of individual players, it depends on a lot of things. In the last two years we played a lot of games without important players and still won them."
The City boss is demanding a huge improvement on Saturday’s performance at the Britannia Stadium where his team were ripped apart and could have lost more heavily than by the 2-0 margin.
But he believes City’s heavy recent fixture list and his inability to rotate the team enough because of the injuries are a contributory factor.
“I am always concerned when we don’t win, why we couldn’t do it," Pellegrini added. "Sometimes we play bad. There are a lot of things to analyse.
“It will be the fifth game we have play in less than 15 days, and in a couple of them we have had 72 hours to recover. There have been too many games for the same players but we need to make an important result tomorrow.
“It is important for the team to try and finish at the top of the group. Our target is to win our game and after that we will see what happens to Juventus.”
“I am always concerned when we don’t win, why we couldn’t do it," Pellegrini added. "Sometimes we play bad. There are a lot of things to analyse.
“It will be the fifth game we have play in less than 15 days, and in a couple of them we have had 72 hours to recover. There have been too many games for the same players but we need to make an important result tomorrow.
“It is important for the team to try and finish at the top of the group. Our target is to win our game and after that we will see what happens to Juventus.”
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