Manchester City are to be without Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany for their Champions League clash with Borussia Monchengladbach after the pair were left at home in Manchester.
Toure, who scored a brace on his return to the City starting line up against Crystal Palace on Saturday, was not named in Pep Guardiola's initial 23-man squad for the group stages of the competition, while club captain Kompany is not risked after suffering from concussion in the 2-1 win at Selhurst Park.
Toure was handed his first appearance under Guardiola since August's Champions League qualifier against Steaua Bucharest following months of uncertainty over his future. The midfielder's agent, Dimitri Seluk, had criticised Guardiola for his treatment of his client - comments that led to the Man City boss freezing Toure out of his first-team plans.
However, the ex-Barcelona boss buried the hatchet with the Ivory Coast star by recalling him for the trip to Palace, and Toure rewarded his faith with two goals to hand the away side a crucial victory over Alan Pardew's Eagles.
Toure, 34, now hopes to remain in the Premier League and, in quotes published by the Daily Mirror, insisted that he was happy to stay with the two-time Premier League champions.
He said: "I'm happy with the club, I'm happy with the city and I want to carry on. For what the chairman, for what the club, and for what the fans have been doing for me, singing my name.
"I don't want to retire before I have given them something back. I know what I want to give them back and I don't want to share it with you guys! I want to keep it to myself."
Meanwhile, Toure's club team-mate Kompany's injury nightmare has continued after the centre back was forced from the field on Saturday after suffering from concussion.
The Belgium international collided with goalkeeper Claudio Bravo during a period of miscommunication in City's backline and, after attempting to soldier on, eventually left the pitch under orders from club doctors following complaints of double vision.
TheManchester Evening News claims that Kompany sat out Monday's training session and, as a result, was left in the UK while the rest of City's first-team squad flew out to Germany.
Ilkay Gundogan and John Stones, who missed the trip to Palace, have returned to bolster Guardiola's options, however, after Guardiolarevealed that the duo were rested ahead of the game against Gladbach.
He said: They were so tired after the international break. Both John and Gundo played 90 minutes and then 90 minutes and were so, so tired “ David Silva as well.
We need all the players to achieve our targets. We cannot play with 11 players every three days at this intensity so I like to rotate the players to convince them we need them all. I want the whole squad involved in achieving our targets, and the quality of their performance will make the difference.�
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