Pep Guardiola will give Gabriel Jesus the chance to prove his fitness to face Olympiakos on Tuesday, but could turn to Ferran Torres or Raheem Sterling to lead the line.
Jesus has had one training session with his teammates as he steps up his return from injury and if he gets through a session on Monday afternoon he could be involved against the Greek champions in Manchester City's third Champions League group fixture.
The Brazilian has been out of action since the first game of the season, when he scored in a 3-1 win at Wolves. City's problems up front have been compounded by Sergio Aguero picking up a fresh injury after his own return, but Guardiola is confident he will be back after the international break and hasn't yet ruled him out of featuring against Liverpool this weekend.
But Jesus is closer to a return and asked if he could play against Olympiakos at the Etihad, Guardiola said: "It’s too early to know, we’ll see [after] the last training session today.
"He did one training session with part of the team but we are happy he is back. We are waiting on Sergio but we have another alternative in Ferran."
Aguero is also well on the way to a return to fitness, having been forced off at half-time against West Ham just over a week ago with a hamstring problem.
That was the Argentine's third start of the season as he returned from an injury that ruled him out of the start of the campaign and Guardiola is determined not to rush him back and risk a further setback.
"Right now, I don’t know. He’s getting better but I don’t know. We don’t want him to have a setback but he’s getting better. I don’t know about Liverpool but I think for sure after the international break he will be ready," he said.
Torres played through the middle for City in the 1-0 win at Sheffield United on Saturday and Guardiola has hinted the Spaniard could continue in that role tomorrow night.
He has also used Raheem Sterling as a central striker previously, but Guardiola would prefer to utilise Sterling's strengths out wide against teams who defend deep against City, as Olympiakos are likely to do.
"He can play there when the opponents defend a lot of space in behind," said Guardiola.
"Teams that come to press you and there are spaces to run, he can do it. When a team is settled in the box for 90 minutes, he is better playing in the sides."
