Vincent Kompany could be at the centre of a club versus country dispute after the Belgium coach, Marc Wilmots, stated there was a “big chance” he will be fit to face Israel, despite Manuel Pellegrini insisting the Manchester City captain’s calf injury means he is unavailable.

Kompany was named in the squad for the Euro 2016 qualifiers against Andorra and Israel by Wilmots on Friday despite the 29-year-old not having played since 15 September when he suffered the injury in City’s 2-1 defeat to Juventus.

“I talked to Vincent on the phone,” Wilmots said. “His injury is not that serious, there is no burst. On Monday he starts to run again. He won’t play Saturday against Andorra, but there’s a big chance that against Israel he will be fit to play. Anyway I wanted Vincent with us, he will follow his schedule with us. But we won’t take risks with him.”

“I can’t ask him not to travel,” said Pellegrini before City’s Premier League fixture against Newcastleon Saturday. “If the national team call him, he must go. But he cannot play so I don’t think he will play and in the same way, when you don’t play for your national team, you cannot play afterwards for your club. It must be the same in the other sense, if you cannot play for your squad you cannot play for your national squad.”

Pellegrini is not unhappy Kompany has been selected. “No, because he is an important player. He must be with his mates. Belgium is playing important things for the next European cup. That was not a problem for him to go to the national squad.

“I hope that he can return after the international break, I am not sure. I hope that after 15 days he will be able to play but the calf is a difficult muscle. We must see in the way he improves.”

Manuel Pellegrini has accepted Vincent Kompany is likely to miss games every season because of injuries.

The defender is out with a 10th calf problem in three and a half years at City. In all, Kompany has suffered 25 muscle injuries and Pellegrini admitted his concern that his captain seemed certain to be absent for matches each campaign.

“All players have history – I’m not only talking about Vincent Kompany,” the manager said. “You have an average [number of] games that you don’t play every season except when very unlucky with a broken bone.

“If not you must understand some players will not play the whole year. It is a problem of course that in the last years he has a lot of games that he cannot play for different muscle injuries. In the way he works I hope in the future he will have less injuries.”

The Chilean stated this was one factor why Nicolás Otamendi was recruited in the summer from Valencia. “I decided we need another centre-back. We choose Otamendi and he is playing very well. Of course when you make a decision you must decide about a lot of things.”

Pellegrini is not concerned at having a leader of his team who can miss games. “Vincent is a very important player for us. He’s important because he has a lot of character and personality. I don’t want to link one thing with the other. He’s our captain, an important payer. I said from the first five games, when we didn’t concede a goal, that the form of the defence was untouchable in that moment.”

Pellegrini is clear that Kompany cannot play for Belgium because of his calf injury, despite being selected by the coach, Marc Wilmots, for this month’s Euro 2016 qualifiers. Wilmots, though, is refusing to rule out using the defender.

“I talked to Vincent on the phone yesterday,” he said. “His injury is not that serious, there is no burst. On Monday he starts to run again. He won’t play Saturday against Andorra, but there’s a big chance that against Israel he will be fit to play. Anyway I wanted Vincent with us, he will follow his schedule with us. But we won’t take risks with him.”

In March 2013 Roberto Mancini, Pellegrini’s predecessor, criticised Wilmots for playing Kompany against Macedonia after a 60-day absence with a calf injury.

Asked if there was concern this could occur again, Pellegrini said: “The medical staff is always in contact [with their Belgian counterparts]. I repeat, I don’t think that Vincent will play for the national squad. We can’t do anything about that because they have to take the decision that he’s not able to play.

“I can’t ask him not to travel. If the national team call him, he must go. But he cannot play so I don’t think he will play and in the same way that when you don’t play for your national team you cannot play after for your club, it must be the same in the other sense: if you cannot play for your squad you cannot play for your national squad.”

Pellegrini is not unhappy Kompany has been selected. “No, because he is an important player. He must be with his mates. Belgium is playing important things for the next European cup. That was not a problem for him to go to the national squad.

“I hope that he can return after the international break. I am not sure. I hope that after 15 days he will be able to play but the calf is a difficult muscle. We must see in the way he improves.”

Yaya Touré is also absent for Saturday’s . “We also have injured [Gaël] Clichy, Fabian Delph, Samir Nasri and Yaya Touré,” Pellegrini said. “Yaya has a problem with his hamstring, he cannot play. Eliaquim Mangala is in the squad list, also Kelechi Iheanacho and also [Wilfried] Bony.”