The City captain suffered a calf problem on international duty with Belgium earlier this week and won’t recover in time to face Jurgen Klopp’s in-form side.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Pep Guardiola said: ”He played with Belgium against Gibraltar. They won 9-0. He had a little problem in his calf. I think he will not be able for tomorrow.”
“It will be short [his absence]. The next time he will be able to play.
“I’m sad. I would like him to be fit.
“He made a huge effort, our physios worked a lot to take care of him, so the last seven, eight, nine games of the season he played without problem for 90 mins.
“This season we take care of him, he played three games 90 minutes.
“Now was the period of three games a week and unfortunately we lost him. We will try to recover as soon as possible.
“The window is over. With Vincent or without Vincent, we thought maybe we need another one. But we have Mangala, we have Tosin and of course there are other options and other players that can play in that position.”
Meanwhile, Guardiola added that midfielder Ilkay Gundogan has been training with the squad and is fit for selection.
“He has trained with us in the last two weeks, three weeks,” he said. “He is part of the group.”
Keep an eye on mancity.com throughout the day for further updates ahead of the big game.
