Thursday 1 October 2015 16:57, UK
Xherdan Shaqiri could yet face Aston Villa on Saturday despite a thigh strain that has kept him out of training all week.
Stoke's record signing was injured during last weekend's home win over Bournemouth, City's first in this season's Premier League.
And manager Mark Hughes is prepared to give him as long as possible to prove his fitness ahead of the trip to Villa Park.
"We will have to see how he is over the coming hours, because he hasn't trained with the group yet this week," Hughes said on Thursday.
"He will go home and rest now and hopefully he can come in tomorrow and join in the session with the rest of the lads. If he does that, and suffers no effects from it, then he will certainly be in my thoughts. If not then we won't take any chances."
Hughes is still without his captain Ryan Shawcross, but the centre-half is ready to step up his recovery from back surgery.
"Ryan has trained with the younger lads which is another big step forward for him," the manager said. "He probably could have joined in with us, but with our minds focused on preparing for the game at the weekend we felt he would be best served working with the Academy.
"It's really encouraging to see him back out on the pitches again, and hopefully we can step it up even further in the next week or so.
"He obviously needs some game time so we will look to arrange a couple of friendly matches if we can, and then see how he goes from there."
Asked if Shawcross could return against Swansea immediately after the international break, Hughes told the club website: "We will have to see. We certainly don't want to rush him or put a timescale on anything but he is making real positive progress which is encouraging."
