City star De Bruyne damages medial ligament in right knee

Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne has suffered suspected knee ligament damage following Manchester City’s 4-3 aggregate win over Everton in the Capital One Cup on Wednesday.

Everton led 2-1 from the first leg and increased their advantage as Ross Barkley finished off a swift counter-attack with an excellent finish in the 18th minute.

City had looked sluggish and there was little evidence they were capable of dragging themselves back into the tie before Fernandinho restored parity on the night six minutes later.

Having scored 26 league goals last season, he netted in only three of his first 12 Premier League outings in 2015, with Pellegrini facing weeks of questions about when the striker would return to form.

Manchester City of course have the quality up top with Sergio Aguero, I expect Sterling and De Bruyne to start either side of the little Argentinw with Toure, Delph and Silva in behind.

De Bruyne came off of the bench and hit the aggregate equalizer before setting up Sergio Aguero to send home the aggregate winning goal, effectively making De Bruyne one of the most important contributors of the match.

“It’s not the cruciate ligament, it’s the medial, we think”, Pellegrini said. “I think Joe Hart made a very good save from that free-kick, that is why he is our goalkeeper number one, but if we want to be involved in all the competitions we need the whole squad to do it”, he said.

Martinez denied that the decisions had balanced out over the two legs.

The City boss told a news conference after the match: “Maybe it was a mistake by the referee, but I think Everton can not complain about the referee”.

“There have been a few big decisions go against us lately, but then it should give us inspiration to pay our fans back by getting them to Wembley this season”, said the Spaniard. “It is important to focus on the FA Cup and after that we have two very important games in the Premier League”.

The visitors will be aggrieved that De Bruyne’s goal was allowed to stand, with the ball appearing to be out of play when Raheem Sterling crossed from the left.