Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has revealed that he is hoping his players decide against going to the Africa Nations Cup in January.
Yaya Toure, Kolo Toure and Abdul Razak are all likely to be called up by Ivory Coast for the month-long competition.
The Italian coach has said that he will talk with the national team's manager regarding his players' involvement, but admitted that it is "difficult".
"If we lost Yaya and Kolo and maybe Abdul, who also has not played a lot of games here but maybe in January could be important - if we have two or three players injured, we don't have other players," said Mancini.
"I hope that maybe they don't go in this competition.
"We talk and we need to talk more with their manager but it is difficult."
City are currently second in the Premier League.
Written by
Sam Hughes
Sam Hughes
