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Manuel Pellegrini insists his medical team are working as hard as possible to try and solve their injury problems.

Manchester City have been beset with a number of injuries in recent months, leaving fans frustrated as the team's performances have slipped after a perfect start to the season.

Vincent Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta are two that have suffered a series of setbacks this season and neither are fit to face Southampton on Saturday.

Heading off any inquest into why the club are coming down with so many injuries, Pellegrini believes it is a problem all big clubs must face up to and is fully behind his medical team.

"They work very hard but it is not just our problem," he said.

"All the clubs have the same problems here in England and in other European leagues, because the players have to play so many games in the year and they have to go to their national squads with long flights.

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"The amount of games and the intensity of games, maybe they are the reasons why all the clubs have so many injured players. It is important for our medical staff to try to recover them as soon as they can, but it is a difficult task.

"We always try to study why we have different injuries but there is not just one reason."

Pellegrini spoke about how long each of his injured players are likely to be out for.

Joe Hart

"Joe Hart has a muscle injury. You never know because it is very important the way he improves but I think he will be out for around 10 days.

"It is important for him to recover well. We will see in the next week how many days he will be out."

Eliaquim Mangala

"Mangala has a muscle problem in his hamstring. I think he will be fit, not for Hull, but for Stoke [on December 8].

Pablo Zabaleta

"Zabaleta has the same knee injury, it is the ligament in his knee. He needs to make a treatment now. He will be out for at least 10 days."

Vincent Kompany

“Vincent doesn’t have any chance to play this week because he’s not started running already, so he has two weeks more,” Pellegrini said after the Juventus game."

Samir Nasri

(Image: Samir Nasri/instagram)

Pellegrini reiterated on Friday that Nasri's injury is a long-term problem.

"We don’t have Samir Nasri for four or five months," he elaborated last week.

"Samir Nasri has a tendon injury in his right leg so now he must have surgery because it’s an important injury."