Roberto Mancini, the Manchester City manager, has drawn a line under his long-running dispute with Carlos Tevez and insisted the Argentina striker is now available for selection.
But Mancini, talking after his team reached the last 16 of the Europa League with an emphatic 4-0 victory over holders Porto, warned Tevez he faces a major obstacle in attempting to regain a regular place in his side.
This week, Tevez formerly apologised for his behaviour during his refusal to play for the team over a dispute with Mancini which dates back to September, when he disobeyed his manager’s instruction to warm-up during a Champions League defeat away to Bayern Munich.
The Italian boss will meet his player before training on Thursday and expects him to be available for selection in the middle of next month.
“He has apologised,” said Mancini.
“I don’t have any problem. Tomorrow, I will meet him before training, after that, he can start to work with us.
“I think he maybe needs two or three weeks to find form; after this he will be OK. He can play, like the other players,” he added with City two points clear of Manchester United at the top of the Premier League.
“Carlo knows the team very well but the team, in the last six or seven months, has played very well. They are top of the Premier League.
“We know Carlo well, he’s a top striker so it would be good to have him back, I think he can help us and do a good job in the next two months.
“I think it is important if we have Carlo, Mario (Balotelli), Edin (Dzeko) and Sergio (Aguero) so it would be good for the team.”
With Tevez still absent from the City line-up, his compatriot Aguero was the pick of the hosts’ stars at Eastlands on Wednesday.
He scored the opening goal in just 19 seconds then layed on a second for Dzeko before David Silva and David Pizarro completed the rout and a 6-1 aggregate win for City.
Mancini had spoken at the start of the season about wanting to have four front-line strikers at his disposal for the campaign and now, with Tevez’s return, he appears to be in that position.
“Carlo cannot play in the Europa League,” said Mancini.
“But having four strikers for the Premier League would be good.”
City’s comfortable victory over last season’s Europa League winners has left them as one of the favourites to claim the trophy in 2012.
With Mancini’s team still occupying first place in the Premier League, a league and cup double is possible.
“We hope so,” said Mancini.
“We want to try to get to the final if possible. But it will be difficult because the Europa League has top squads – Manchester United, Valencia, Schalke – it is like the Champions League.
“For this reason, it will be difficult but we will try.”
Vitor Pereira, the Porto coach, saw defender Rolando sent off as City scored three goals in the last 14 minutes and declined to answer when asked if he thought his team’s conquerors could go on to win the trophy.
“The result didn’t show what happened on the pitch,” Pereira said.
“If people see the result and think City dominated the game, they’re wrong.”
