There’s contrasting news on City’s pair of injured Bulgarians, with Valeri Bojinov making good progress in his battle to overcome a serious Achilles injury.The desperately unlucky striker ruptured his right Achilles tendon just minutes before City’s opening league fixture at Villa Park was due to begin. This latest blow came after he had fought back from a cruciate ligament injury that had ended his first start for the Blues a year earlier, while Martin Petrov was ruled out for around four months after sustaining a knee injury while on international duty earlier this season.

Of the injured pair, City’s assistant Mark Bowen says: “We expect them both back before the end of the season. If you’re asking for an exact date, I can’t give that but Boj is back on the training ground now and he’s working hard on a one-on-one basis with our sports science department.

“His fitness seems to be improving every day, and I imagine without having any exact dates that it could be a matter of weeks rather than months before he is able to work with the rest of the players.

“Martin’s situation is more serious, he has had his operation and is not even doing any work at the moment, he’s waiting for the initial stages of his rehab to unfold.

“We’ve missed him - we’ve missed both of them, but with Martin we know what he can give to the side. Boj is a different kettle of fish, I don’t think anybody has seen too much of him since he came here because he has been so unlucky with injuries. The sooner they are back, the better.”

Tim Oscroft