Yaya Touré will be available for Manchester City’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Paris Saint-Germain after Manuel Pellegrini confirmed the midfielder is in the squad for Saturday’s home game against West Bromwich Albion.
While David Silva is a doubt for Tuesday’s second leg because of a heel injury that prevents him facing Wes Brom, Touré missed the 2-2 draw at PSG and has not featured since the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United on 20 March.
Given Fernando, who replaced Touré against PSG, struggled and was partly to blame for Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s equaliser, the Ivorian’s return from a knee injury is a considerable boost as City seek to reach the semi-finals for the first time in their history.
As City are in fourth place only a point ahead of United with seven Premier League matches remaining, Pellegrini will wait until Saturday morning to assess if he can start Touré against Tony Pulis’s side in the televised late game.
“Yaya started working yesterday working with the squad. He’s recovered from his knee injury. He’s in the squad and we’ll see tomorrow whether he’ll start,” the Manchester City manager said. “Not involved is David Silva – he has a problem with his ankle. Raheem Sterling and Vincent Kompany are also missing. Raheem has a groin muscle problem. He’s starting running again but he needs a couple of weeks more. It’s a small problem for Silva. He’s playing with this pain for a lot of games and it’s too soon for him to repeat another game so soon after the last.”
Silva’s ankle problem is chronic but does not require an operation. Pellegrini said: “I don’t think surgery. It’s a kick he received with his national team he cannot recover 100% but he plays with some pain, not too much. But to play repeat games for him is more difficult. At the end of the season he will recover 100 %.”
Kompany is continuing his rehabilitation from a knee injury. Pellegrini is clear he is not considering the concerns of Marc Wilmots, the Belgium coach, that the defender may be rushed back to face PSG. “No, I am not concerned about their opinion,” he said. “I am not thinking about that [PSG match]. I am just seeing how he is improving in every work he is doing. He’s not working with the squad for the moment, so we will see next week how many days he needs. I am always positive.”
City’s defence was shaky against PSG but Pellegrini denied their performance in Paris is creating any pressure to select Kompany. “I always say we have a squad and with this squad there’s a lot of injuries during the season for the most important players. We are in the Champions League because all of them had a good performance. Maybe one can make mistakes, as can Vincent when he plays, so I always try to choose the best starting XI in that moment,” he said.
Pellegrini wants City to focus on West Brom and forget about the return game with the French champions until after Saturday’s match. “It was exactly the same the game we played last weekend against Bournemouth that everyone could be thinking about the Champions League but we were focused on that game and I think the team played very well [winning 4-0]. Tomorrow is exactly the same. What we need to do is win three points at home.”
