Manuel Pellegrini refused to allow Vincent Kompany the captain's armband during UCL win

Vincent Kompany celebrates City’s Champions League victory against Sevilla with Joe Hart

Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany was denied from claiming the captain’s armband when he came on as a substitute for Kevin de Bruyne in the Champions League match against Sevilla on Wednesday, as per the reports on Mirror. City manager Manuel Pellegrini refused to allow Kompany the armband and he is now a major doubt to start Sunday’s Manchester derby despite his return to fitness.

The Belgian international suffered a calf injury ahead of the recent international break, but he disobeyed Pellegrini’s request to stay back and train at the club to complete his rehabilitation from the injury. Kompany defied the manager’s order and went ahead to play in Belgium’s Euro 2016 qualifiers against Israel.

Since then, the 29-year-old has not started a game for the Citizens and he was an unused sub in his side’s 5-1 victory over AFC Bournemouth. However, he came on and replaced Kevin De Bruyne in the dying minutes of the second half.

It was surprising when the Chilean manager tried to prevent skipper-for-the-night Yaya Toure passing the armband to Kompany when he was introduced on the pitch to ensure victory for the Manchester club. Toure went to the touchline and as he attempted passed the captaincy baton to Kompany, Pellegrini waved him away.

Pellegrini’s handling of Kompany will fuel the suspicion that he is finally asserting his authority at the club. At the same time sending the much-needed message to Kompany that he is the man in charge.

But the City manager has dismissed the notion of a rift with Vincent Kompany and has insisted that he is more concerned about his fitness, although the Belgian defender still remains a doubt for Sunday’s Manchester derby. Pellegrini also praised two his centre-backs Eliaquim Mangala and Nicolas Otamendi in the captain’ s absence.

"Vincent is coming back from a long injury - he has been out for one month.” he said.

"There was a risk to give him the responsibility to play this important game. I try to pick the team every week that at this moment are ready or better to play. Today is Wednesday then we’ll have to think about the derby and see how the players recover. We have a lot of different things to think about.”

He further added: "I think that Nicolas Otamendi and Mangala played very well, both of them. We played very well against Bournemouth and Newcastle — we won 5-1 and 6-1.”

“Vincent is coming back after a month, maybe it was a risk to give him the responsibility to play in this important game. For me, I try to [pick] every game and every week the team that I think are in this moment ready to play."