Yaya Toure will not be eligible to play in Manchester City’s Champions League group games after being left out of Pep Guardiola’s squad.
The City boss was forced to drop an overseas players from his squad as UEFA rules permit only 17 players who are not “locally-trained” or “association-trained”.
Clubs can change three players after the group stage but Toure, 33, will not be able to play against Borussia Monchengladbach, Celtic and Barcelona.
The Ivory Coast international has played a major part in all City’s trophy wins since he was bought from Barcelona, then managed by Guardiola, for £24m in 2010.
He has only played once this season, in the second leg of the Champions League play-off against Steaua Bucharest, when City were already 5-0 up from the first game.
It was rumoured Toure might leave the club following Guardiola’s arrival, with Inter Milan one of the clubs who were interested.
However, the player never had any desire to leave City and intends to see out his contract, which expires in 2017.