Manuel Pellegrini played down the back problem that forced Sergio Agüero’s withdrawal after 73 minutes of Manchester City’s victory at Stoke City on Wednesday evening.
The manager is hopeful that Agüero, whose two goals in the 4-1 win were the forward’s first since 3 December, should be fit for City’s next match, Newcastle United’s visit on Saturday week.
“Kun felt something in his back, my feeling is that its not something too serious, and we have now 10 days to train well and recover well,” said Pellegrini.
Asked if Agüero will be fit when Barcelona visit the Etihad Stadium in the Champions League on 24 February, the Chilean said: “I hope he will be fit on the 21st against Newcastle. When Sergio has more minutes, he will return to his normal performance level. He scored one goal, he scored a penalty and I think it’s important for him, for [Samir] Nasri, for [Edin] Dzeko, [Vincent] Kompany, all the players who have come back from long injuries, to have minutes, and if they have minutes they will improve.”
This was City’s first league win since New Year’s Day. “We needed this victory, because the last four games we didn’t win,” said Pellegrini. “Stoke are a very tough team, I think in the last three games I have played against them in charge of Manchester City we scored just once, so to score four goals here is very important and we’ll see if we can continue this way in the future.”
