Vincent Kompany provides forecast for Burnley midfielder Josh Brownhill’s spell on the sidelines

The midfielder sustained a freak ankle injury during the Lancashire derby against Blackpool at Bloomfield Road and was replaced by Scott Twine after just 26 minutes.

He was pictured in a leg brace as the squad attended Burnley In The Community's Charity Dinner in Manchester later that night as players mingled with supporters at the event.

Kompany had feared the worst after the goal-less stalemate on the seaside, but allayed fears that his vice-captain would be out for a prolonged spell when previewing this weekend's game at home to Wigan Athletic.

The Manchester City legend said: “He’s unavailable and it leaves me again wondering why so many astro-turfs are flanking the sides of the pitches at the moment.

“It’s every ground including Turf Moor in some areas, not everywhere, but I think it was a trend that was made about 10 or 15 years ago and it took over at every ground, but I’m pretty sure those decisions at the time to change the surroundings of the pitch was made by non-football people, it has it be."

He added: “If you would have put any person in charge that had set foot on a football pitch at a decent level he would have told you that makes no sense to do that. I think it’s injury number three or four that I witness in this way and they’re usually bad ones because they’re torsion.”

“Yeah [he'll be back before the end of the season]. Hopefully the international break, for Browney in his terms, it comes at the right time, so we’ll see how he progresses and ideally we get him back for the first game after the international break. But I know with these things you’ve got to be a bit cautious and we’ll see.”

On loan Chelsea defender Ian Maatsen could also be back in contention for the visit of the Latics to Turf Moor. "He's fine, he’s good," Kompany concluded.