Mario Balotelli will appeal but he misses Manchester derby

Mario Balotelli will miss Wednesday night's Manchester derby after accepting his dismissal at West Bromwich Albion on Sunday but the Italian remains hopeful that the three-match ban he received will be reduced to one game on appeal. The Manchester City striker, who was given a straight red card for kicking out at Youssouf Mulumbu, after he had scored both goals in Sunday's 2-0 victory, will learn whether his appeal has been successful tomorrow when an independent regulatory commission meets to discuss his sending off. City will claim that the incident involving Mulumbu was worthy of only a second caution – Balotelli had earlier been booked for dissent – and would therefore carry a one-match ban rather than the mandatory three-game suspension that follows a straight red card for violent conduct. It would, however, be a major surprise if Balotelli was successful with his appeal and the likelihood remains that he will be forced to sit out Saturday's home game against Birmingham City and the trip to Fulham the following weekend as well as United's visit to Eastlands.City run the risk of the FA extending Balotelli's ban to four games if the commission deems that there was never any prospect of their appeal being successful. If that were to be the case Balotelli would not be able to play again for City this month. The FA said in a statement yesterday: "The FA can confirm that Manchester City FC have today submitted a claim that, following the dismissal of Mario Balotelli for violent conduct, the standard punishment of an automatic three match ban is clearly excessive. The claim will be heard by an independent regulatory commission tomorrow."