Vincent Kompany out of Manchester City vs Monaco as Pep Guardiola confirms captain is close to latest comeback

The Manchester City captain has played just 115 minutes of league football this season

Vincent Kompany is not available for Manchester City's Champions League visit of Monaco (Getty)

Pep Guardiola has ruled Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany out of the Champions League last-16 first leg against Monaco on Tuesday, but confirmed that the injury-prone defender could be in line to return for the FA Cup replay against Huddersfield Town next week.

Kompany missed the 0-0 draw with the Championship side on Saturday, having made just one appearance in 2017 after being hampered by a knee ligament injury as well as the psychological effects of his spate of setbacks.

The 30-year-old has played just six times in all competitions this season, with just 115 minutes in the Premier League under his belt since April 2016, and Guardiola was quick to confirm his absence again this week when speaking at a pre-match press conference on Monday.

Asked if the City captain will be available for the visit of Monaco, Guardiola said: “I don’t know. I think it will not be long. For the Huddersfield game he will be ready but not for tomorrow.”

Guardiola did confirm that left-back Gael Clichy should recover from a back injury in time to feature, having missed City’s last two matches, and added that he is yet to decide if Willy Caballero will remain in goal or if Claudio Bravo will be recalled for the European fixture.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich head coach was keen to praise Caballero though, but despite his return to the first team coming after a string of high-profile errors from Bravo, Guardiola did not believe that Caballero had upped his performance from where he was at the start of the season, hinting instead that Bravo’s level has dropped off.

“[Caballero] started good in the beginning of the season, he has always been top level,” Guardiola explained. “He understood what we want because we didn’t know each other when I came here.

Guardiola was keen to praise Caballero's level of performance (Getty)

“I think in the last two or three games he played, he was the same at the beginning of the season.”