Manuel Pellegrini confirmed that Wilfried Bony, Fernandinho, Vincent Kompany, Eliaquim Mangala and Samir Nasri will miss Wednesday night’s game.
However, the City boss did have better news to report on David Silva and Yaya Toure as the Chilean revealed that the pair who missed the Norwich FA Cup tie will return to the fold against the Toffees.
“It was good to rest both of them as they’re in the squad list for tomorrow – we’ll see who will be in the XI but we have to play two games so close together so we’ll see,” Manuel declared.
“Silva is 100% fit – maybe it’s a risk for him to play Wednesday to Saturday.
“Kompany, Mangala, Fernandinho, Nasri and Bony – those five players are injured and not fit for tomorrow’s game.
“Mangala tried to work yesterday with normality but he couldn’t. He had some pain still in his muscle – for him, it’s best to wait a bit more. It’s the same for Fernandinho and Bony. For Kompany and Nasri, it’s longer.
“Vincent tried a lot of different things to try and find the cause of the injury so we have no update at this time.”
Pellegrini also emphasised that City will not go into the transfer market in January.
There had been speculation that the club might try to bring in another striker in the window but Manuel believes that there is already an answer to that question in his current squad.
“Kelechi has been involved from the first game of this season,” Pellegrini said.
“He’s in the squad in that position and we have Bony, we have Sterling, we have Kun.
“It’s important for Kelechi to play like he did against Norwich. He’s the answer when you ask if we’re going to buy another striker – we have Kelechi.
“The target was to continue in the FA Cup and we did it – after that, it’s always important to keep a clean sheet away – better than that, to score three goals.
“Two or three players also returned from injury like Delph, Fernando and Zabaleta so it was useful for that too.”
Wednesday marks the second of three meetings with the Toffees but Pellegrini believes that the games are not related to one another.
“The games are not related,” Manuel ruled.
“Everton maybe will be related to Crystal Palace as we will have less than 72 hours to recover the players. Those two games are more linked than the other games against Everton.
“Every game is different – we must try to beat Everton tomorrow, then we think about Crystal Palace. We don’t know if there will be the same players, the same performance - so much can change in 15 days.
“Everton has a style of play, they’re an attacking team under Roberto. They have players in a very good moment so we must be very careful with their counter attack. We must try to score more goals and do more damage to their defence but also be a balanced team.
“On a good day with a normal performance, it will be a tough game, but I think we can win.”
