Manchester City's Toure ruled out of clash vs. Norwich City due to heel knock

Manchester City will enter Saturday's match against Norwich City without Yaya Toure after the Ivorian was ruled out of the contest because of a heel injury.

The 32-year-old was fit enough to participate in City's last match against Aston Villa, where managed to find the back of the net, but continues to suffer the after-effects of a heel injury he picked up in a loss to Liverpool on March 2.

Toure becomes one of four City players set to miss the encounter, joining Kevin De Bruyne, Fabian Delph, and Samir Nasri in the stands at Carrow Road.

"The same three players - Nasri, Delph, and De Bruyne are out and expected back after the internationals," manager Manuel Pellegrini told reporters Friday.

"This week Yaya Toure has a problem in his heel - same as Liverpool. Yaya is out. We’ll see how he improves next week. We don’t know (about Kyiv) yet.

"It's important to have the players back. I hope that after the international break they will be fit for the rest of the season and that can be very important.”

City will face Dynamo Kyiv in the second leg of its Champions League match in the Round of 16 on Tuesday, but Pellegrini's focus remains on the Premier League and closing the gap on league-leaders Leicester City.

“We don’t just depend on what we can do,” he reflected. “It’s important because Tottenham, Leciester... we cannot have the same points as them if they win all their games.

“If that happens we must make sure it’s because they won theirs not because of us not winning.

“It depends how the pressure is managed. We don’t have the margin of error and we need to win our games.

City currently occupies the fourth position in the table with 50 points, but has a game in hand on Leicester, who leads the way with 60 points.