Vincent Kompany will miss Manchester City’s games against West Ham United and Sunderland because of a calf problem and is to be assessed before next week’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur.
The captain suffered the injury in Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat to Juventus in the Champions League. It was the 10th occasion Kompany has injured a calf in three years, the first time being in March 2012.
Manuel Pellegrini will have to break up a defence who have kept five clean sheets in five Premier League matches. The City manager said: “Vincent is not fit for the game [with West Ham]. Continued to be injured are Pablo Zabaleta, Gaël Clichy, Fabian Delph and Samir Nasir has a kick after the last game and he is not 100% fit for tomorrow. Sergio [Agüero] recovers very well. He is 100% and will play without any problems.”
Of Kompany’s absence Pellegrini added: “It is always important [not] to have injured players, especially the captain and especially in a moment when we didn’t concede any goals in the first five games but I think it is important to carry on playing with the same names but I always say we have a squad.”
Nicolás Otamendi should make his first start following the £32m transfer from Valencia. “It is important for Nicolás Otamendi to have his opportunity to demonstrate why he is here and Martín Demichelis to return to his performance last season. We have a squad and we need to replace the captain,” Pellegrini said.
Kevin De Bruyne could also be named in the starting XI in what would be his full debut. “He is adapting quickly to our system,” Pellegrini said. “Maybe he doesn’t dominate all the [play] that we do but he is an important player and he demonstrates especially against Crystal Palace that he can play. We will see tomorrow the 11 starters.
“I am very happy [with him] because, same as with Raheem Sterling, we didn’t have players with their characteristics. They give another option to our squad.”
