LONDON • Yaya Toure has been ruled out of Manchester City's trip to Bournemouth today due to a knee injury, and is a serious doubt for Wednesday's Champions League quarter-final first leg at Paris Saint-Germain, along with Joe Hart.
While Hart is still recovering from the calf problem he suffered in the 1-0 derby defeat by Manchester United before the international break, Toure had been playing for some time with the injury.
Said City manager Manuel Pellegrini: "Toure has some trouble in his knee - the last month he's been playing with the same problem.
"I'm not 100 per cent sure but I think it will be difficult for Joe or Yaya to play against PSG."
There is better news concerning Kevin de Bruyne, who has been out since late January with a knee ligament injury.
The Belgian had scored 12 goals and made 12 assists before suffering the injury late in the League Cup second leg against Everton, and is fit enough to be included in the squad today.
Said Pellegrini: "Kevin worked the whole week without any problem. Of course it's two months that he couldn't play, but I saw he worked very well without any problem, same with Samir Nasri (who had a hamstring injury), so I hope both of them will be important for the last part of the season.
"At the end of the season when you've had so many players playing a lot of games for the whole season, it's important to have fresh players. They are in the squad list because they are ready to play. Maybe not 90 minutes, but they can play."
The Chilean also confirmed Raheem Sterling will be out for "four or five weeks more" with a groin injury, but is hopeful that the outcome of Martin Demichelis's Football Association charge for gambling will not be severe.
The central defender has until Tuesday to answer the charge he made 12 breaches relating to matches between Jan 22 and 28.
"I spoke with Martin, he told me what he did, we must see what the FA thinks about that. We must wait for next week," said Pellegrini.
"He's part of the squad, he's always very committed with this project, so if he has made a mistake we will see how important it is but I don't think it's that serious."
THE GUARDIAN
BOURNEMOUTH v MANCHESTER CITY
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