Roque Santa Cruz left out of Manchester City Europa League squad

Roque Santa Cruz's peripheral existence at Manchester City continued today when the club announced that he has not been included in their Europa League squad. Santa Cruz was excluded from City's 25-man squad for the qualifying ties against Timisoara last month and the injury-troubled striker has missed the cut again for the first group phase. Robinho's departure to Milan had opened up a place but the manager, Roberto Mancini, wanted to include James Milner following his arrival from Aston Villa and also had to adhere to guidelines stipulating that a certain number of homegrown players were involved. Santa Cruz has been included in City's Premier League squad but has scored only four goals since joining them in an £18m move from Blackburn Rovers 15 months ago, and the Paraguayan came close to signing for Lazio on loan before the transfer window closed last week. Uefa, announcing the Europa League squads on their official website this morning, had omitted the names of Milner and Mario Balotelli but have subsequently admitted this was an administrative error on their part. Manchester City Europa League group stage squad Given, Taylor, Hart, Richards, Bridge, Kompany, Zabaleta, Kolarov, Boateng, Lescott, Kolo Touré, Logan, M Johnson, Milner, Wright-Phillips, A Johnson, Barry, Vieira, De Jong, Yaya Touré, Adebayor, Silva, Jô, Tévez, Balotelli