Aleksandar Kolarov and Carlos Tevez will both miss out on this Saturday’s trip to Upton Park with one game bans for a sending off and a fifth booking of the season respectively.
Kolo Toure could be absent due to the calf problem that saw him replaced after 30 minutes against Bolton, but because of the players he can call upon, the Manager feels there is no need to risk rushing him back.
“With Kolo we will have to wait to see how it is after another couple of days. His calf was very sore after Saturday, but it does not look like it is a serious injury,” he says.
It’s a problem that we have lost Kolo, Carlos and Aleks for the next game, but the guys we have to bring in are good enough, so it should not affect us too much.
“Now we are starting to play every few days again we need to have all the players available. There are not many injuries around, but now we are have suspensions to deal with, so we will need to make changes.
“We had a lot of injuries at the start of the season, and now that we have so many games coming up I hope that we don’t start getting many more.”
A second yellow card, just a few minutes after the first, saw the Serbian defender dismissed and Mancini was happy that the player did not overreact despite his disappointment with the decision.
“The first yellow card was correct, but I am pleased with the way Aleks did not react badly to the red card. He’s a good guy with the discipline that players need to have.”
