Vincent Kompany Has to Prove His Injuries Are Behind Him at Manchester City

"When Vincent [Kompany] walked off that pitch, we [Manchester City] were winning that game and winning it well. But when he came off the pitch, the mood in the whole stadium just dropped. It changed."

Former City captain Paul Lake spoke to the Blue Moon Podcast following the 4-1 win over Sunderland on Boxing Day 2015. That afternoon, the team had taken their opposition apart and gone back to within three points of leaders Leicester City in the Premier League table.

The headlines should have been about the performance. Raheem Sterling, Yaya Toure, Wilfried Bony and Kevin De Bruyne had given City a commanding lead, leaving Sam Allardyce's side in major trouble and putting Manuel Pellegrini's back in touching distance of the summit of the table.

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Instead, the headlines were all about the captain. Vincent Kompany had spent eight matches on the sidelines with another in a series of calf injuries. He spent nine minutes on the pitch, after coming off the bench for Nicolas Otamendi just after the hour mark, before the fourth official held up his number for him to be replaced.

"It was almost as if there was a bereavement," Lake added. He wasn't wrong. You'd have thought City were losing 4-1 with how the crowd reacted.

Kompany's injury problems have blighted the last few campaigns of his career at City. Even under former manager Roberto Mancini, where the Belgian played a large role in the club having one of the best defences for a number of seasons, the centre-back was prone to injury. But it was under the Italian's successor at the Etihad, Manuel Pellegrini, when the problems really started to mount up.

By the 2015-16 season, despite an excellent start where the skipper scored in back-to-back 3-0 victories over West Bromwich Albion and Chelsea, Kompany was being written off in some quarters. The pattern was too hard to ignore—he'd come back from a period injured seemingly stronger than before, last a few matches and end up being substituted with another muscular problem.

He was forced off in City's 2-1 defeat to Juventus in the September. He returned, only to suffer another problem in training in the November. He lasted nine minutes when he came back against Sunderland at the end of December.

His return in the 2-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur that February was carefully considered, though that he played a full 90 minutes of each of City's next six matches was perhaps too much to ask.

The captain broke down seven minutes into the seventh game, a goalless Champions League round-of-16 second-leg draw with Dynamo Kiev.

Kompany made yet another comeback in mid-April, returning to the starting lineup for the 1-1 draw with Newcastle United.

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Ten minutes into City's second leg of the Champions League semi-final with Real Madrid, the captain went down with nobody around him, called for the physio and waved to the travelling fans as he departed the pitch.

For those keeping count, that was his fourth comeback ended by his fifth injury of that campaign. Many thought that wave was one of goodbye and that he'd never play for the club again.

It didn't turn out to be. He was still a part of Pep Guardiola's new-look side and was thrown back into first-team duties in the 2-1 EFL Cup win over Swansea City at the end of September—but he again left early through injury.

The Belgian has been used sparingly since and hasn't completed a full match. Having been fit to come on as a makeshift striker at the end of the 1-1 draw with Everton, many were surprised to see Kompany left out of the squad entirely for the trip to Barcelona the following midweek and youngster Pablo Maffeo in his place on the bench.

Guardiola explained shortly after why the captain didn't feature, despite making the trip to Spain: "Vincent was not perfectly fit. That is why we took a decision to pick Pablo Maffeo. We appreciate him a lot. Normally Vincent Kompany would be on the bench. But he was not fit.

"I thought two or three days ago for Camp Nou, maybe for his personality, maybe he can do that, but one day after, in the training session here he said, 'I didn't feel like this.' In that moment when his head is not ready, [and with] what happened in the last two years it's better to stay out."

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From Pellegrini's overuse of the skipper following his injuries, it seems Guardiola is being a lot more cautious.

The defender played 78 minutes of the 1-1 draw with Southampton before being withdrawn. City's rotated team for the next round of the EFL Cup, a 1-0 defeat to rivals Manchester United, had started the match well at Old Trafford, with Kompany as part of the defence. This time, he came off at half-time.

Guardiola explained: "Vincent didn't play the second half because he was tired. He informed us that he could not play the second half, that was the reason why."

However, City can't really win. If the captain plays more minutes than he's ready for and is forced off with another injury, then there's nothing but criticism for the decision of not easing him back into action. Yet Kompany's omission from key matches, when seemingly available, is raising questions of his future at the club.

Is he in Guardiola's plans? The Catalan says so: "He has a contract, no? He has a contract. So, of course. What is the problem now about Vincent and the future? He is a Man City player and the reason why he didn't play the last two seasons regularly was because he was injured many, many times.

"We are trying to give him faith to play regularly. When he's fit he is going to have the same options to play as his team-mates. Then it depends on my decision—his quality, performance, everything."

The manager is very particular when it comes to his defenders' playing style and has consistently reiterated that he won't change his ways of asking them to be calm on the ball, accept the opposition pressure and play from the back.

The centre-half has proved in the past that he's capable of passing the ball from defence and carrying it out of the back four.

Guardiola was quick to dismiss such talk that the substitution was about more than tiredness and says it's about managing the skipper's injuries: "At Swansea it was a little injury, two or three weeks. That is a good thing. But the game against Southampton it was 72 minutes and he said 'I'm tired,' and the last game it was 45.

"So we are trying to handle the situation in that way until hopefully [we] arrive at the moment he can play 90 minutes. It was just three days later after Southampton so maybe that is the reason why he was tired."

What future Kompany has at City is going to be dependent on how fit and available he can stay. One of the team's biggest issues in recent weeks has been avoiding defensive errors, and the club has always looked strong with the Belgian in the back four.

Despite spending big on the likes of Otamendi, Eliaquim Mangala and John Stones, City are still yet to find a regular, solid partnership for when the skipper is absent.

Guardiola really needs Kompany to be available for more than the "Ledley King" role—or he may have no long-term future with the club anymore.

It could start with the game against Middlesbrough on Saturday. At his pre-match press conference, Guardiola said, as reported by the Manchester Evening News' Simon Bajkowski and Ciaran Kelly: "Maybe [he'll play 90 minutes]. I still have to think this afternoon after this marvellous press conference and think about my team, speak a little bit with the physios about their conditions. The Barcelona game was always tough mentally and physically but of course he has a chance."

For the fans, who have watched him develop into one of the best centre-backs in the league, Kompany being unable to get back to full fitness would be heartbreaking.

All quotes were obtained firsthand, unless otherwise noted.