Manchester City are straining every sinew to keep pace with title favourites Chelsea. More injuries are certainly not what the doctor ordered.
Yesterday, captain Vincent Kompany pulled up up in agony clutching his hamstring, and it now looks like he will be out of action for at least a month. City manager, Manuel Pellegrini watched on in dismay as the Belgian international signalled to the bench that he could no longer continue against Leicester. This followed an incident earlier when Edin Dzeko was ruled out of the game during the warm up with a calf problem.
The treatment table at City is going to be pretty busy over the festive period with Sergio Aguero and Steven Jovetic also sidelined.
City do have ‘strength in depth’, and should get through this sticky patch, but losing such prolific attackers and the rock of your defence in quick succession will be a massive blow to Pellegrini’s immediate plans.
He said: ‘It’s difficult to know what happened to both of them. Vincent has the same problem as a few weeks ago. That was one of the reasons he did not play on Wednesday.
‘Edin has a muscle injury in his calf so maybe both will be more than a couple of weeks. We must find a reason why. It is very unlucky to have three strikers with muscle injuries.
‘It’s difficult because we have to play a lot of games. We will see with Vincent but I think it will be difficult for them to both play again this year. Jovetic may be out for a few weeks.’
If you are not a City fan it will be tough to have any sympathy for a club who seem to be able to purchase the world’s top players in the blink of an eye, but it is hard not to have a little for the individual players who have clearly put every effort in for their manager in recent months. Without these leaders on the field, catching Chelsea just got a little tougher.
Written by Michael Horne
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