Manchester City’s Samir Nasri ruled out for one month with groin injury

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/26/manchester-city-samir-nasri-ruled-out-one-month

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Manchester City have suffered a blow with the news that Samir Nasri has been ruled out for a month because of a serious groin injury that requires surgery. The Frenchman will miss at least seven matches, including Champions League games against Roma and CSKA Moscow, and league games against Aston Villa and Tottenham in October.

Nasri has flourished under Manuel Pellegrini and the manager admitted on Friday that the loss will be difficult. “Of course, he’s a very important player for us and it’s not easy for us to play without Samir,” the Chilean said. “But I never give excuses about players that, for different reasons, are not in our squad. We have an important squad.

“It’s serious because he will have surgery in the next days. I’m not a doctor but he will be out for around one month. He was training but he wasn’t 100% and he wasn’t comfortable with what he was doing so the doctor decided it was the best option.”

With City having lost their opening Champions League game at Bayern Munich, Tuesday’s visit of Roma has become vital so Nasri will be particularly missed then. The other games for which he is expected to be unavailable are against West Ham United, Newcastle United and Saturday’s trip to Hull City, for which Fernando and Stevan Jovetic also remain unavailable.

Pellegrini takes City to the KC Stadium having yet to win a league match in September, with the 3-1 defeat of Liverpool on 26 August the champions’ previous victory. Of Jovetic, who has a hamstring problem, and Fernando, who has hurt his pelvis, the manager said: “Jovetic and Fernando are out. They will be ready next week. Nasri also has a groin problem.”

Sergio Agüero and David Silva, who missed Wednesday evening’s 7-0 hiding of Sheffield Wednesday in the Capital One Cup, are now “OK”, the manager said.

City are aiming to defend the title, having failed to do so two years ago under Roberto Mancini, and Pellegrini believes this can provide extra motivation. “It’s a good experience, of course,” he said. “When you win the title, maybe it’s more difficult the next year to have the same motivation but I think that it’s what I feel here in my team, that experience was useful for all the players. They are trying to do their best. The challenge not only to win the title once but to continue winning titles is important for this group and I hope we can celebrate another title at the end of the season.”

Eliaquim Mangala has impressed in his first two matches for City. “We have four centre-backs, Vincent Kompany, Mangala, Demichelis and Boyata, and that’s why we have a squad. We need all of them to play in all the competitions,” said the manager. “The performance of the players will decide which starts but I am very happy with the performance of Martín Demichelis and Kompany, both of them. Mangala just played two games and did well and I’m very happy about that. It was high performance.”