Pep confident Kompany will be back in business after his injury woes

PEP Guardiola is ready to put his faith in Vincent Kompany and abandon his pursuit of a top-class centre-back this summer.

The City manager refused to meet Southampton’s £60m asking price for Virgil van Dijk - and will instead gamble on Kompany overcoming the injury problems that have blighted the last three years of his career.

City are still in the market for central defensive cover - following Aleks Kolarov’s £5.25m move Roma - but it is understood it will not be a marquee name.

Guardiola has spent his first 12 months at the Etihad trying to recruit a top-class partner for John Stones to form a partnership at the heart of his defence.

Moves for Leonardo Bonucci, Aymeric Laporte, Lucas Hernandez, Holger Badstuber and Van Dijk have come to nothing.

After seeing Kompany’s influence on the team upon his return from injury in the final weeks of last season, Guardiola is now convinced the 31-year-old is over the muscular problems that have plagued him in recent years.

It is a remarkable turnaround for the Belgian international, whose City future looked in serious doubt just months ago.

Guardiola openly questioned whether the mental scars of his injury record had taken their toll after Kompany took the unusual step of ruling himself out of matches for club and country last