Manchester City have been hit by the news that captain Vincent Kompany will face another three weeks on the sidelines due to a thigh injury.
The Belgian, who has been plagued by troubles over the past year, has missed the club's last seven games after sustaining the problem in the 3-1 win over Everton last month.
The Belgium FA have grown concerned over the amount of time it is taking for Kompany to recover and sent team physio Lieven Messchalck to assess the defender.
"I think Vincent is going to be ready in several weeks," Messchalck told Sky Sports News. "We will do everything we can to bring back Vincent in a good way for a long time.
"First of all he had a rupture, a tear into the abductor and then also he has bad luck with a small thing on the front side now, so it's everything together.
"It's not really so long, eight weeks is nothing in the time of injury, you must respect biology."
Kompany will now be out of action for a total of five weeks having initially been predicted to miss just 21 days.
