Pep Guardiola has admitted Vincent Kompany’s mental state has been affected by an injury-plagued past two years, with the Manchester City captain’s mistrust of his body causing him to pull out of the Champions League defeat at Barcelona.
The manager, who is seeking to avoid a fifth game without a win when Southampton visit on Sunday, said Kompany was fit to travel to the Camp Nou for Wednesday’s match and that the player then informed the medical staff he could not make himself available.
Kompany has suffered 34 separate injuries in his eight years at the club and Guardiola believes the defender’s state of mind has been affected by missing so much football.
“What happened in the last two years I don’t know,” Guardiola said. “We are working on that with the doctors. So I thought two or three days ago for Camp Nou, maybe for his personality, maybe he can do that. But one day after, in the training session, he said: ‘I didn’t feel like this [good].’ In that moment, when his head is not ready and with what happened in the last two years, it is better to stay out. I don’t want to put a lot of pressure about how many games we want him to play or set big, big targets.
“So it’s just try to train good and after a week of training no injuries, we’ll play a game, and after that another one. And after that we’ll see. But I think when he’s trying to play one game and after another one, he’ll take a lot of confidence. Maybe he’ll be able to play a few games.”
