Pep Guardiola has confirmed Sergio Aguero trained with his Manchester City teammates ahead of the Champions League clash against Olympiacos but hinted he would not be involved against the Greek champions.
The Argentine missed four months after suffering a serious knee injury that required surgery back in June.
Aguero returned for the Premier League clash against Arsenal last month but was substituted at half-time with a fresh injury concern.
The 32-year-old, who has entered the final year of his City contract, was left on the bench during the weekend's defeat to Tottenham and Guardiola confirmed the Blues will continue to carefully manage his condition ahead of the gruelling festive period.
"We want Aguero to come back," he said during his pre-match press conference. "Today he's training again, we want him to recover a good feeling in his knee.
"This is the most important thing. One step at a time, we have many games this season and we will need him. We want to recover his best condition."
City have won all three of their opening group games and another victory against Olympiacos would all but seal their progression to the knockout stages.
Guardiola knows a win will allow him to rest players and focus on improving their Premier League form.
He added: "It is important for our qualification and also to recover our feelings. To be able to win games is important. We can leave this competition until February and focus on other competitions, especially the Premier League.
"At the same time we know how difficult it is and if we are able to get results we travel to Porto and then have Marseille here.
"One step at a time but at the same time to recover, to come back and create good feelings."
