Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini has denied reports he is punishing his captain Vincent Kompany for playing for Belgium.

Kompany has been on the bench for both City games since Pellegrini expressed frustration that his injured defender played for his country in a Euro 2016 qualifier last week.

But Pellegrini said: "I don't have any problem with Vincent Kompany. I need every week to choose the XI that I think is the best for that game and when the others play they must wait, exactly the same for the players of the squad.

"I'm not punishing Vincent and I don't have any problems in the relationship with Vincent.

"I think that after one month or five weeks without playing and without training you must be fit and you are not ready to play an important game. It's important to work some days before he returns to the team."

Kompany did appear as an injury-time substitute in the Champions League win over Sevilla. His late introduction did lead to some confusion as captain for the night Yaya Toure offered him the armband only for Pellegrini to stop him.

Speaking at a press conference, Pellegrini said: "It's very easy to explain. Maybe it's not what you (media) are expecting to listen to because maybe it can be a better history for you.

"The only thing that I thought was that Yaya was changing his armband because (he thought) he was leaving the pitch, but it was not Yaya, it was De Bruyne."