Vincent Kompany issues warning to Man City amid Burnley injury boost

Vincent Kompany has suggested he will welcome back at least some of his injured players when Burnley face Manchester City on Wednesday evening.

Kompany returns to the Etihad for the second time as manager, having been thumped 6-0 in the FA Cup last season. The Clarets have enjoyed a rare 19-day break and that time has been used to work on the fitness of those who missed the 1-1 draw against Luton Town.

Charlie Taylor, Hannes Delcroix, Jordan Beyer and Aaron Ramsey were all out injured for that game, while midfielder Sander Berge was ill. Burnley have had almost three weeks to prepare for Wednesday's short trip to Manchester and Kompany is hoping for some to return - although he did not give away who.

“We will see," he said of the above quintet. “You’ve just blasted out a list like this, so you’ve made it easy for me to say! But we will see tomorrow. There will be some positive news in there, the list can’t be longer than that. But the biggest thing will obviously be the team on the day.”

Few have given Burnley a chance of coming away from Manchester with anything, given City have such little room for error in the title race and Pep Guardiola will have both Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland available. No Premier League team has taken three points from the Etihad this season but Kompany is heading to his former ground in a defiant mood and believes he can upset the apple cart.

"They're a great side," the Belgian said of City. "They've got top players, a top manager. The combination of that makes them very difficult to play against. There's not many times you get the opportunity to play against what is currently the best team in the world.

"You can't start the game defeated, even though the rest of the world will - rightly so - have an idea of the outcome. We're going there with every desire to get the most out of this game. Whatever they bring, we have to make a game out of it."