Blues face Bellamy blow

City expect striker to be sidelined for run-in

By Chris Burton   Last updated: 21st April 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Blues face Bellamy blow

Bellamy: Requires complete rest

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Manchester City look set to be without Craig Bellamy for the remainder of the season.

The Wales international aggravated a knee injury during the Blues' Uefa Cup quarter-final first leg defeat in Hamburg and has been out of action ever since.

It was initially suggested that the striker had suffered damaged fibres and he was expected to shake off the problem before the end of the current campaign.

However, City boss Mark Hughes has revealed that Bellamy is now unlikely to feature in his plans again before next term.

"Craig has got to have complete rest for two weeks then he comes back for strength work," Hughes said in the Manchester Evening News.

"Hopefully he might get the last couple of games, but the probability is that he won't."

Scan

City are still chasing a top-seven finish in the Premier League, with European qualification representing a realistic target.

However, on top of the disappointing news regarding Bellamy, Hughes has also seen Shaun Wright-Phillips and Pablo Zabaleta succumb to knee and hamstring problems respectively.

"Shaun is still sore and has had a bang to the bone on his knee and that is hampering him," he added.

"The good news is that he has had a scan that has come back positive and it is just a matter of the swelling being removed from around the injury. Once that has gone he should be okay."

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