Manuel Pellegrini says he must not rush Manuel Lanzini back into the West Ham fold after the Argentine made his first appearance of the season against Fulham on Friday night.
Lanzini, who suffered an ACL injury six days before last summer's World Cup while preparing with Argentina, came off the bench for the final 14 minutes of the Hammers' comfortable win over Claudio Ranieri's side last week.
However, with the much tougher task of a trip Manchester City, where the 26-year-old's craft could come in handy, Pellegrini won't be tempted into throwing Lanzini straight into the starting line up.
"We must be careful with him," Pellegrini said.
"He did very well in his 15 minutes and the important thing was that he was not afraid and remembering his knee so we will see what the best way is to get minutes in every game.
"You must be careful when you give more minutes."
Having played the majority of the season with eight or nine senior players out through long-term injury, Pellegrini has this week had the welcome sight of two central defenders beginning their return to training.
Fabian Balbuena, out since December, and Winston Reid, who has not featured since a 4-1 loss at Swansea in March 2018, both took part in a small section of training at Rush Green on Monday morning, though will not be ready for the Etihad.
