The Football Association has rejected Manchester City's appeal against Vincent Kompany's red card in the 3-2 FA Cup defeat by Manchester United.
The defender, 25, will serve a four-match ban immediately for his two-footed tackle on Nani.
Kompany will miss the Carling Cup semi-final first leg against Liverpool and the return tie on 25 January.
He will also be absent from the league trip to Wigan on Monday and the home game against Tottenham on 22 January.
An FA statement said: "The suspension consists of a statutory three-match suspension for serious foul play plus one additional game given this is Kompany's second dismissal of the season."
Very disappointed with the decision. Another blow for us but we have to stay together! We will give 100% for our captain City's Micah Richards on #Twitter
The decision will further frustrate City manager Roberto Mancini - who has defended his call for further investment after drawing scorn on Friday when he claimed the club would struggle to fill the substitutes' bench for the FA Cup game against United.
City have spent approximately £250m on new players since the Italian took charge at the club two years ago.
However, the club are now struggling with a growing injury list with further players unavailable because they're on international duty.
David Silva is a doubt for Wednesday's game against Liverpool, along with fellow strikers Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko, while Yaya and Kolo Toure are on Africa Cup of Nations duty.
Mancini was forced to include Abdul Razak and Denis Suarez, who have just six first-team appearances between them, on the bench against United and is now considering involving 17-year-old Dutch defender Karim Rekik in the set up.
"All the people think we have a lot of players," Mancini said. "But we have 19, plus keepers. It is not a big squad.
"If we are unlucky and we have three or four players injured, like at this moment, we can have a problem. The club knows this.
"Until three weeks ago we didn't have any injuries. Now, we have a problem.
"We have players injured and others who went to the Africa Nations Cup at a crucial moment.
"I am not happy about this but we can't do anything about it. If we don't get the players back we will play with the young players.
"If we don't have a central defender we will play with [Karim] Rekik."
KOMPANY'S FOUR-GAME BAN
11 Jan Liverpool (h) Carling Cup semi-final first leg
16 Jan Wigan (a) Premier League
22 Jan Tottenham (h) Premier League
25 Jan Liverpool (a) Carling Cup semi-final second leg