Manchester City forward Samir Nasri out for 2 weeks with groin injury

Manchester City forward Samir Nasri faces a struggle to play any part of the Barclays Premier League champions' festive programme after injuring his groin.

The France international looked back to his best Newcastle last weekend but had to come off in the first half.

Now he has been told he cannot play for two weeks, a prognosis that rules him out of games against Reading, Sunderland and Norwich and leaves him extremely doubtful for the meeting with Stoke on New Year's Day.

City, in common with most clubs, face a fixture schedule of four games in eleven days over Christmas and New Year, meaning that Nasri's injury comes at the worst possible time for a team looking at a six-point gap between them and Manchester United at the top of the league.