Silva set for City return

13 January 2012 11:16

Manchester City assistant manager David Platt has confirmed he expects David Silva to be fit for Monday's trip to Wigan.

The brilliant Spain midfielder suffered a blow to his ankle in Sunday's FA Cup defeat to Manchester United that ruled him out of the midweek Carling Cup reverse to Liverpool. Silva is currently back in Spain having treatment but after scans revealed there was no major damage, Platt is expecting him to be involved in the Barclays Premier League clash at the DW Stadium.

"David did a bit of running yesterday and will do a bit more today," said Platt. "Hopefully he will be back on the training pitch tomorrow."

However, Platt conceded that striker Mario Balotelli, who aggravated an ankle injury against Liverpool, was more of a doubt.

"Maybe. But that's all it is, a maybe," he added.

After losing successive games for the first time since 2008, City must now bounce back to preserve their three-point advantage over Manchester United and Tottenham. However, Platt insists the Blues are not feeling the pressure.

"No one expected us to continue winning games without having a difficult moment," said Platt. "We can't accelerate the season by four months to see how it is going to turn out.

"But we are still in the Carling Cup semi-final and our players are quite capable of turning the situation around, and 19 clubs would like to be where we are in the championship. It is not a bad position to be in - some crisis."

Meanwhile, Platt has raised the possibility of Carlos Tevez playing for the club again, even though it is widely anticipated his move to AC Milan will be revived despite the collapse of talks with City on Thursday.

"Stranger things have happened," said Platt.

Source: PA