Pellegrini hopeful over De Bruyne injury

Everton missed out on a place at Wembley on Wednesay, as Manchester City booked their place in the League Cup Final.

Everton led 2-1 after the first leg and put themselves in sight of a final against rivals Liverpool next month as Ross Barkley extended their advantage with a superb strike.

De Bruyne’s excellent 23 minutes of action ended when he was carried off on a stretcher with suspected medial ligament damage. We had another 15 minutes, if that was not the second goal when we had the third goal we stopped because we had the score we wanted. “We hoped he could return quicker but the first diagnostic is that he must be out for eight or ten weeks”, he said.

With his agent having suggested he would be out for six weeks the results of a specialist scan are a bitter blow for De Bruyne, who wrote on his Twitter feed: “Just got back from the specialist. I’ll be out for around 10 weeks”, De Bruyne said. He has played a major role in the League Cup scoring in every tie and given his impact, City will miss his services dearly in the EPL as they fight for title honours.

Pellegrini said the club’s doctor thought it was a problem with De Bruyne’s medial ligament.

“We’ll see tomorrow (Thursday)”.

“I’m very happy because I think we deserve to be in the final”.

“It’s one less important player but we must continue with optimism and give responsibility to the squad. It is very hard to know in this moment but I am optimistic he will not be out for the rest of the season”.

Everton goalkeeper Joel Robles apologised to De Bruyne after the game for attempting to pick the player up as he lay down in pain.

While de Bruyne presence may not be felt during that match, it should still be an excellent game to watch, as both Man city and Liverpool boast some of the best squads in the Premier League.

“I spoke with him half an hour ago and he is a little bit sad because he has a tear in his ankle and also the ligament in his knee are touched”.