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Manuel Pellegrini: Man City boss unhappy at Belgium head coach

“For me, in the same way, when you don’t send a player to their national squad, you can not use in your club, in the other sense it must be the same way”.

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Manuel Pellegrini revealed his frustration that Vincent Kompany played for his national team this week instead of resting.

Pellegrini had insisted that his influential skipper would not be fit for either of the games against Andorra or Israel but Belgium coach Marc Wilmots fielded him in the latter.

Speaking at a news conference before Sunday’s (AEDT) Premier League match against AFC Bournemouth, Pellegrini said he had no problem with Kompany wanting to play for his country, but cast doubt on his participation this weekend after being involved in a game City said he was not available for.

“But these are the rules”.

‘It’s not my duty to do it but I think a few days clubs will protest about that because I think it must be from the same side the same thing’.

Pellegrini would not confirm if Kompany will start for the Premier League leaders against Bournemouth on Saturday (15:00 BST).

He said: “There is not a problem with him”. It was just important for him to work a whole week before playing a game, but he couldn’t because he played with Belgium. “He couldn’t do it because he played for Belgium, so he had to recover here Wednesday and Thursday. We will see in the future when he can return to his position”.

Aguero will be replaced in the starting XI by Wilfred Bony, with the forward having recently admitted that the current phase as a player has been the worst in his career.

While Kompany is at least heading back to full fitness, Pellegrini confirmed that striker Sergio Aguero will be out for at least a month with the hamstring injury he suffered playing for Argentina.

Pellegrini said: “Sergio has a muscle injury”.

City, in contrast, have to wait for most of their squad to return from global engagements all over the world, and then make alternative arrangements when important players come back injured. Both are likely to be out for a fortnight.

“I think the only way to win it is to be absolutely sure you play with 100 percent of intensity”.

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“That is what the Belgium manager said so we can not do nothing about that, just the suggestion from the medical report that it was not good for Vincent to play”.

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini fumes at Belgium boss Marc Wilmots