Boateng blow for City

Manchester City’s problems at the back continued on Friday, with news defender Jerome Boateng will be forced to undergo knee surgery.

The versatile German sustained the injury while warming up for his country’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Kazakhstan in Kaiserslautern on Saturday, which the Germans won 4-0.

With Kolo Toure out through suspension after testing positive to a ‘specified substance’, Boateng’s absence is a big blow for boss Roberto Mancini ahead of their clash with Sunderland on Sunday.

“He will have surgery in the next two or three days. Maybe he will be fit for the last two games (of the season),” Mancini said.

In better news for Mancini’s defensive stocks, Pablo Zabaleta has returned from his trip home to Argentina to visit his ill father, while Micah Richards is a chance to recover from his hamstring tear in time for City’s FA Cup semi-final with Manchester United on April 16.

Richards sustained the injury while on England Under-21 duty, and had originally been ruled out for six weeks, but Mancini said the club’s fitness staff were working overtime to get him back sooner.

“We are trying to get him fit for the semi-final. I don’t know if it is possible but we hope,” Mancini said.