 |  | | |
| |||
The Belgian midfielder's one-match suspension saw him miss last weekend's game against Spurs, but a groin injury that had forced him to miss the preceding Thursday's UEFA Cup tie may have prevented from playing even without the ban, which came after he reached five Premier League bookings for the season.
However the suspension, plus the fact that the Blues do not play until Sunday, are both factors in favour of Kompany according to City manager Mark Hughes.
"We’ll check Vincent again today, but we still have a few days and we don’t have to quickly get him out onto the field of play to see if he is OK. Hopefully this slight groin injury will resolve itself over the next couple of days, but we’re positive on that.
"He had to miss the weekend but in hindsight that was good for the injury, although not so good for us because we did miss him. However we feel that it’s likely that Vincent will be available for Hull."
The boss also denied reports at the weekend that Michael Johnson was set for an operation to deal with the groin injury that has seen him sit on the sidelines since September's Carling Cup defeat to Brighton.
"He’s still with the medical team here and we are still trying to work on the right course of action for him. We’re not at the stage, yet, where we think an operation is needed but we want to resolve it as quickly as possible, but at the moment we don’t think it’s coming to that."
Another selection issue for City's first Premier League game on Humberside will be Richard Dunne's absence from central defence, the City skipper receiving a one-game ban after being sent off for a professional foul near the end of Sunday's defeat to Spurs. Tal Ben-Haim and Nedum Onuoha could be competing for a start, and Mark tell us that his choice will be down to what he sees in training this week.
"There’s a shirt up for grabs, and I am influenced by what I see on a day-to-day basis. I don’t just go by who’s done what at the weekend, there has to be a consistent level of performance at training leading into games, and then you are more likely to get a decent performance."
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น