Vincent Kompany may have to put his comeback on hold because of another calf injury, Manchester City learned yesterday.
The influential skipper has been out for a month since he limped out of the FA Cup win over Stoke. He was due to return against Aston Villa next Monday but he is now being troubled by a similar problem in his other leg.
City hope that it is not as bad as the first injury and that the Belgium defender can play at Villa Park as they try to stay in touch with Manchester United at the top of the table. City’s victory over third-placed Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday was their first win in four Premier League games without Kompany (below) as United opened up a 12-point lead.
Kompany’s deputy, Kolo Toure, and Joe Hart were to blame for conceding a second-half penalty against Chelsea, when Demba Ba was brought down, although Hart redeemed himself by turning away Frank Lampard’s spot-kick brilliantly before City went on to win 2-0.
It was the perfect response by Hart after his error in the 3-1 defeat at Southampton a fortnight earlier and a warning from Mancini that he will not hesitate to drop the England goalkeeper if he continues to make mistakes.
Hart’s fist-clenching celebration after the save spoke volumes as he kept City in the title race and proved a big point to his manager.
Yesterday he said he had put the Southampton debacle behind him and is determined to push United all the way for the title.
‘If United keep on winning there’s nothing we can do but if they don’t they need to know we are going to be there,’ said Hart. ‘We’ll never give up. Even if there was one game to go and 12 points difference we’d do what we can.
‘We all under-performed against Southampton but that’s gone, you can’t do anything now, you move on. You’ve got to look forward. We’ve got a lot to do but we’re going to have a damn good go at doing it.’
Hart said he used the knowledge gained in training with Lampard on England duty to guess which way he was going to put his penalty on Sunday, denying him a 200th goal for Chelsea. – Daily Mail