Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany will miss his side’s Premier League showdown with Liverpool on Saturday due to a calf injury, manager Pep Guardiola revealed on Friday.

The centre-back, who has a long history of calf problems, sustained the injury after completing the 90 minutes of Belgium’s 4-0 victory over Gibraltar in World Cup qualifying last week.

“He played with Belgium against Gibraltar. They won 9-0. He had a little problem in his calf. I think he will not be able (to play) tomorrow,” Guardiola told reporters at City’s training centre in Manchester.

Guardiola predicted that Kompany would only be sidelined for a “short” period of time.

City are level on points with second-placed Liverpool in the Premier League table after winning two and drawing one of their three games to date.

Coutinho will not feature against Man City – Klopp

Coutinho has not yet played for Liverpool this season, with the club citing a back injury, but he joined up with his national side for World Cup qualifiers and made two substitute appearances against Ecuador and Colombia, scoring against the former.

But Liverpool’s German boss said the playmaker would not feature against City.

“We have got all the numbers (on Coutinho) from the Brazilian FA — the training, the intensity of the training, stuff like that, and it was all OK. And he played twice — I think about 15 or 20 minutes,” said Klopp.

“He could have played 15, 20 minutes again in the City game, maybe longer, but I think really it makes sense (to leave him out).

“He agreed completely, so it was not as if he said ‘no, I don’t need training, I want to play’. It was a good conversation.”

Liverpool, who thumped Arsenal 4-0 in their last match before the international break, are second in the Premier League after three matches, with two wins and a draw.

Pep Guardiola’s big-spending City have the same number of points but trail Liverpool on goal difference.