Wilfried Bony trained with his Manchester City team-mates for the first time on Monday following his £25m transfer to the champions from Swansea City.
Although agreeing the move in the January window, the striker had not spent a day at the club as a City player owing to playing for Ivory Coast at the Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.
Bony, along with Yaya Touré, helped Ivory Coast win the tournament and had been granted a break following the final, which was won in a penalty shootout against Ghana.
Manuel Pellegrini is hopeful Bony can boost City’s prospects of retaining the title and help them knock Barcelona out of the Champions League. The first leg of their last-16 encounter is on 24 February.
Pellegrini has four front-line forwards again to choose from, Bony joining Sergio Agüero, Edin Dzeko and Stevan Jovetic, the 26-year-old Bony taking Jovetic’s place in the Champions League squad.
Although Pellegrini is keen to play down Bony’s importance, insisting the squad as a whole should perform, he said: “If Bony is coming here, it is because he will be a very important player for our team. After that I always say the same thing, the players produce their best performance when they have competition within the squad.”
