Sergio Aguero: Manchester City striker expects to be out for a month

Such a return helped encourage Manchester City to spend £28 million to sign him from Swansea in January, even if both parties knew that the Ivorian would primarily occupy the role of substitute to chief goal-getter Sergio Aguero.

Aguero is nearly certain to miss Manchester City’s derby clash against Manchester United on the 25th of this month and there are still uncertainties around Silva’s availability for their trip to Old Trafford.

Aguero was just beginning to hit his stride after his slow start to the campaign, scoring five times against Newcastle in an extraordinary thumping before the worldwide break, and his injury added to David Silva’s knock will give Pellegrini a few headaches going forward after his side lost two of their last three Premier League games. “I’ll go to the AFA national team compound to carry on with treatment”.

“To recover from the tear I’ll surely need a month, although it will depend how it evolves”, Agüero said.

The former Atletico Madrid striker was stretchered off during Argentina’s shock 2-0 defeat to Ecuador last week and is set to be sidelined for a period of four weeks, which comes as a huge blow to City’s ambitions this season. Spain confirmed Silva had suffered “a bad sprain of the internal lateral ligament of the right ankle”.

With Silva in the team, City win 65 per cent of their games, but without him that figure drops dramatically to 52 per cent.