Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted that he is desperate for Vincent Kompany to put his injury issues to one side as it is "impossible" to continue relying on John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi.
The 31-year-old is unlikely to return to action before the international break, as he continues to struggle with a calf injury sustained while with Belgium at the end of August.
City have performed well defensively in their skipper's absence, conceding a joint-low four goals in the Premier League all term, but Guardiola is unhappy with the current workload of Stones and Otamendi who have featured a combined 22 times for the Citizens already in 2017-18.
"Of course, we need Vincent and [Eliaquim] Mangala at a high level to give rest - John and Ota can't play every game for the remaining eight months, it's impossible," he told reporters. "That's why we are lucky because in this month and a half they didn't get injured, they didn't suffer.
"We have Tosin [Adarabioyo], but he's still young, and Manga. In that part of the squad we don't have many, many players. What I want is Vincent to recover as soon as possible, because we need him. Last season, in the last seven games, he was so important for us.
"He helped us to be more solid, to win a lot of duels one against one. We need him and his personality. He needs to compete with John and Ota and Manga and, like this, we will get the best level for the team."
Kompany recently revealed that he is planning to quit international football after next summer's World Cup finals.
Daniel Lewis
