Stefan Savic, the young Manchester City defender at the centre of purported criticism from Kolo Touré, has said there is no lingering issue with his older team-mate and is willing to put the matter behind them.

Touré was quoted in the monthly French magazine So Foot this week saying he did not believe he had lost his place because of "football reasons" and claiming that players who were involved in the Africa Cup of Nations were the "victims of discrimination" because of the matches they missed for their clubs.

The Ivory Coast international, who accepts he was interviewed, also appeared distinctly unimpressed with Savic's first league start for the club, apparently saying: "When you look at the performance of Savic against QPR – excuse me, I'm relaxed."

Touré has escaped the possibility of internal disciplinary action by telling City he was misquoted. So Foot is threatening to sue him if he says it publicly but Savic has accepted that version of events. "He has said to me that he didn't say anything," Savic said. "Straight after it came out in the newspapers he spoke with me and said he didn't tell them anything like that and I can only believe him."

Savic may have a few doubts – "I don't think he should say something like that," he also said – but the 20-year-old signed from Partizan Belgrade for £6m in the summer clearly has Roberto Mancini's backing after being selected ahead of Touré for the Champions League tie against Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

Usually a centre-half, Savic played at right-back because of injuries to Micah Richards and Pablo Zabaleta, and justified his selection with a solid performance.

"I'm happy because the manager picked me and I think I will play a lot of games for this club in the future," he said. "That [QPR] was my first game in the Premier League from the start but I am getting used to this. I came from the Serbian league and I needed a little time but now I think everything is better and the time is in front of me.

"I have a lot of experience playing international football [for Montenegro]. I also played in the Champions League last year with Partizan Belgrade and when I am training with these good players I can only improve."