Manchester City have been hit by another injury blow after Bacary Sagna suffered a hamstring injury on France duty.
Sagna was forced off in the first half of France’s 4-1 victory over Bulgaria on Friday night.
And the club have now confirmed that the 33-year-old has been ruled out for three weeks and will return in early November.
Raheem Sterling, Kevin de Bruyne, Vincent Kompany and Fabian Delph have all be recently sidelined, while there are concerns over the fitness of Sergio Aguero.
Aguero is struggling __with a calf problem picked up in Argentina’s draw with Peru last week, but declared himself available for the visit of Paraguay on Wednesday night.
The striker made a similar gamble last season and subsequently aggravated an injury which kept him out for six weeks.
“When you’re at the national team you always want to take part, but the last time, for wanting to continue, I ended up injured against Ecuador,” he said.
“Sometimes you think: ‘Why didn’t I stop?’ Because then I’m out for a month and a half and I miss six or seven games for City. But when they call you for the national team, you want to play at any cost. That’s how it is.”