Wednesday 23 December 2015 15:05, UK
Manuel Pellegrini has revealed defender Vincent Kompany is fit and in the Manchester City squad to face Sunderland on Boxing Day.
Kompany has not played since the goalless draw with Aston Villa in early November and City have fallen off the title pace in his absence after losing three of their last five Premier League games.
But, having missed eight matches in all, Kompany will be in contention to face Sunderland, as will key full-back Pablo Zabaleta and midfielder Fernando.
City boss Pellegrini said on Wednesday: "The injury situation is better, we will have the complete squad recovered apart from Samir Nasri.
"Pablo Zabaleta, Fernando and Vincent Kompany have all worked with the squad normally. We'll see the starting XI on Saturday, I have not decided my team yet.
"After that, especially with David [Silva], with Kun [Aguero], with Vincent, with Pablo, we have to see how they recover between games."
Forward Aguero was back from injury to start against Arsenal but had to be substituted after just over an hour.
And Pellegrini reported: "Sergio was ready to play - he needed minutes.
"Maybe for three or four games he won't play 90 minutes as he's coming back from injury, but he needs to play."
Pellegrini accepted that the team has missed Kompany and added: "You are always missing good players. He's the captain here and, if he doesn't play, it's an important player we don't have in our squad.
"But one of the most important things of this team is to be in the all competitions, and not just depending on one player."
