Manchester City captain, Vincent Kompany has been ruled out for another four to six weeks following a knee injury the defender suffered during last week's English Premier League fixture against Crystal Palace. The news was confirmed by Man City manager, Pep Guardiola in the pre-match press conference.
Kompany was taken off during the match against Palace following a concussion. However, it has been confirmed that the 30-year-old has suffered a medial ligament damage to his right knee.
On Wednesday, Kompany had met Dr Ramon Cugat, a specialist based in Barcelona after having been assessed by Man City's medical staff. “Dr Cugat confirmed what the doctors here said. He will be four to six weeks out,” Guardiola said.
This is Kompany's fourth injury in 2016 after having previously been out due to calf, groin and thigh injuries. The Belgian has featured only five times for Man City this season, with two of them coming in the Premier League.
Since joining Man City from Hamburg in 2008, Kompany has suffered a whopping 37 injuries, as per data on PhysioRoom. In all, Kompany has missed 878 days owing to injuries This amounts to around two and a half years being injured in the eight years he has been at Man City.
In 2016 alone, the Man City captain has been out of action for 260 days. Kompany has suffered most due to calf and shin injuries that have occurred 14 times to rule him out for 351 days.
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With Kompany's loss, Guardiola faces selection headaches as he has to find the right fit at centre-back along to partner Nicolas Otamendi. Guardiola, however, believes he has the right alternatives to slot in at centre-back.
“Yaya can play in many positions, but I think we have other options to play as central defenders. What happened with Yaya in Barcelona happened once in the final of the Champions League against Manchester United because we had a lot of problems there. We didn’t have players and he played amazing,” Guardiola said.
With John Stones quite prone to errors, other options that Guardiola has are Bacary Sagna and Fernandinho, who played in the heart of the defence in Man City's midweek UEFA Champions League fixture against Borussia Mönchengladbach.
After having missed out on Leonardo Bonucci and Aymeric Laporte in the summer transfer window, this might be an issue that Guardiola will want to address.
It remains to be seen how Guardiola will line up his defence in Man City's early kickoff on Saturday against a resolute Burnley after having started out with three at the back on Wednesday's Champions League match.
