Football
Jonathan Smith, Manchester City correspondent 8y

Manchester City suffer David Silva setback, Yaya Toure return close

MANCHESTER -- David Silva will not play again this season unless Manchester City reach the Champions League final.

Spain playmaker Silva limped out of the Champions League semifinal first leg with Real Madrid with a hamstring injury and manager Manuel Pellegrini expects him to be out for two to three weeks.

Yaya Toure is also set to miss Sunday's Premier League clash at Southampton with the thigh injury that saw him miss the 0-0 draw with Madrid.

However, the Ivorian has resumed training and could be available for the second leg against Madrid at the Bernabeu on Wednesday.

Pellegrini told a news conference: "David has a small hamstring injury so he will not be fit for this week. He will need two or three weeks to recover.

"We hope he will play the Champions League final -- that's the target.

"Yaya started working on Friday morning and we will see the way he improves over the weekend. We'll see if he can be fit for Wednesday but at this moment we don't know, but he has some options."

Pellegrini said he is set to make changes for Sunday's game at St Mary's.

Samir Nasri, who is ineligible for the Champions League, could be recalled to the starting lineup after missing last weekend's 4-0 victory over Stoke City with a small muscle injury.

The Chilean added: "Samir worked this week without a problem. He will be in the squad list for Sunday.

"We have two different competitions -- one is the Premier League, where we want to be as near to the top of the table as we can, and the other is to try and reach that final.

"The best way to play on Wednesday is to play well and win on Sunday. I said before we knew we were going to play eight games in 30 days which is a lot for this squad so I'm making rotations in every game we play."

Despite the Champions League taking centre stage, Pellegrini insists it is crucial that his side are not distracted in their bid to finish in the top-four.

But he warned his side that they face a difficult test against a Southampton team still chasing a Europa League place.

"Southampton is a team that in the last three years are doing very well. They have very good players," he added.

"They sold a lot of players this season and it's a merit to Ronald Koeman that they are doing so well."

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