City denied Toures for United clash
MANCHESTER CITY will be without Yaya and Kolo Toure for Sunday’s mouth-watering FA Cup third round tie against Manchester United after Ivory Coast manager Francois Zahoui rejected the club’s plea to delay their link-up with the national squad.
Fifa rules dictate players can be called up two weeks before the start of the Africa Cup of Nations, which begins on 21 January in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, but City boss Roberto Mancini had hoped Zahoui would show leniency.
Zahoui, however, insists all players will report for duty in Paris on Saturday before flying out with the rest of the squad to Abu Dhabi for a two-week training camp.
Should Ivory Coast make it to the final, the Toure brothers could miss as many 10 matches in all competitions.
With the group stages due to end on 30 January the pair will at the very least miss both legs of the Carling Cup semi-final against Liverpool and the Premier League meeting with high-flying Spurs at Etihad Stadium.