When fully fit, few would reject the notion that Vincent Kompany is one of the best defenders in the Premier League.
Bought right at the start of the club’s new era, his importance in Manchester City’s rise in English football has been near unparalleled, yet many feel his career is reaching its final stages as the 30-year-old keeps picking up injury after injury.
While his latest setback (a concussion) might not have been a muscular injury, the long list of niggles and layoffs beforehand is rather impressive.
Sometimes, recurring injuries come from a poor lifestyle, yet his former manager Marc Wilmots, speaking to L’Equipe du Soir on Monday night, was adamant this wasn’t the case for the Manchester City captain.
He said: “I’ve never seen someone with a more professional lifestyle. If there’s one person who manages every single detail of his life to be extraordinarily healthy, it’s him. I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know exactly why [he keeps getting injured].
“However, there is a possible factor, and I found this in Germany as well, and that’s when you’re injured, you have very few games with the reserves, so you have to go straight from 0 to 100, and when you do that, you have more chances of getting injured again.”
Only managing to play 250 minutes of football so far this season, Kompany, Guardiola and Manchester City fans will be hoping for a prolonged time on the pitch without injuries at some stage this season.
If that means the medical team suggesting only a few reserve games here and there for the foreseeable future just to ensure he’s 100% ready to come back, then they should probably do that.
The comments from Wilmots will no doubt grate with Manchester City fans, given that Belgium, when Wilmots was manager, themselves often seemed happy to rush players back.
