Kompany, Sterling back for Man City's trip to Newcastle
REUTERS - Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany and winger Raheem Sterling are back in the squad for Tuesday's Premier League trip to Newcastle United, manager Manuel Pellegrini has said.
Kompany has not played since March 15 after suffering a recurrence of a calf injury he has been struggling with for most of the season, while a groin injury has kept Sterling out of action since March 20.
"Vincent will be an important help for the defence," Pellegrini told reporters on Monday.
"Sterling is coming back from an important injury and we'll see if he can play some minutes tomorrow. It depends on the way he returns."
The manager, whose team climbed to third in the league table after beating Chelsea 3-0 on Saturday and are through to the semi-finals of the Champions League, said he would be without playmaker David Silva, who has an ankle injury.
Silva, who has missed City's last two league games, will be joined on the sidelines by Samir Nasri, who returned from a long-term injury this month only to pick up another knock against Chelsea.
"Nasri was feeling well, it's a small muscle injury, it's not too important. We'll see how many days he's out for," Pellegrini said of the midfielder who missed six months of the season with a thigh injury.
Pellegrini confirmed that full-backs Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna had also been ruled out and he called on his team to maintain the level they showed against Chelsea when they take on second-from-bottom Newcastle.
"We must continue the way we played on Saturday, solid, keeping a clean sheet and scoring goals," Pellegrini said.
"Newcastle are very dangerous, they have good players. St James' Park is difficult and they need all the points to not get relegated."
(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; Editing by Gareth Jones)