"It's always frustrating to watch games from the stands but I have known for a while I was likely to miss a match at some point and it has to be this one on Sunday," he told the club's official website.
"The important thing is all our international players came back fit and also had some time off. It's important to have some time to disconnect during the middle of the season and now we can look forward to the game with Manchester City, which is going to be very important for us if we want to challenge for the title.
"Hopefully it won't be as dramatic as our game at City when we were two goals down at half-time. We had to play with a lot of belief in that second half and score three goals, which eventually we managed. This time hopefully it will be more comfortable.
"They are a good team even though they haven't got the best of away records this season, so we know we will be in for a tough match."