Stephen Ireland is set to miss the first leg of Manchester City's Carling Cup semi-final against Manchester United after the midfielder picked up a hamstring injury in City's 3-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers. The 23-year-old, who was substituted after 55 minutes at Molineux, was assessed this morning and will be out for the next fortnight.
He will miss the FA Cup tie against Middlesbrough on Saturday along with the club's home game with Blackburn in the league on 11 January and the fixture away to Everton the following Saturday. The club will hope to have the player back for the second leg against United at Old Trafford on 19 January.
Ireland's absence is a blow to City's manager, Roberto Mancini, who is facing a shortage of players. With Kolo Touré and Emmanuel Adebayor on African Nations Cup duty with the Ivory Coast and Togo respectively and Joleon Lescott, Nedum Onuoha and Wayne Bridge all sidelined through injury, the Italian has problems in defence.
Little wonder it he is ready to bring in Iván Córdoba from Internazionale as a reinforcement, although Mancini has admitted he is meeting some resistance./Guardian/
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