Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany will not be fit enough to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
The Belgian defender has still not recovered from the thigh injury suffered during City’s 3-1 win over Everton earlier this month.
Although news of Kompany’s absence against fellow title challengers is a massive blow, City manager Manuel Pellegrini reported no further injuries after City’s draining match in Moscow in midweek.
“Vincent is still injured, so he will not have a chance to play this game,” said Pellegrini.
“Jack Rodwell is OK and all the others are fit, we have no more injuries.” he added.
City have lodged an official complaint following stand-in captain Yaya Toure’s incident in the Moscow game when he claimed that he was subjected to racist abuse from home spectators.
There followed a string of denials from CSKA Moscow officials after they reviewed the match video.
Fellow Ivorian striker Seydou Doumbia, who plays for CSKA Moscow, also allegedly cast Toure’s claim into doubt with some quotes reported by a Russian news agency which he later denied he had said at all.
Pellegrini admitted that the ball was now in UEFA’s court after City had submitted their official complaint.
“I spoke with Yaya and he is OK, I think he did the right thing after what happened and now we will see what UEFA will do about that,” he said.
“I think we are doing all we can do, we can’t do anymore and now it’s important that UEFA respond.
“Here at this club we don’t have any problem in that sense, so we will have to wait and see what UEFA do.”
The incident has brought racism onto the sporting news agenda once again and Russia’s staging of the World Cup in 2018 is being debated alongside the reputation of Eastern European football fans against black players in visiting teams.
Yaya Toure himself suggested that black players should boycott the 2018 World Cup if racism isn’t taken more seriously.