Martin Petrov faces a “significant time” on the sidelines according to Mark Hughes, after it was confirmed that the City winger had suffered knee ligament damage. On the bright side for City, Hughes is far more optimistic on Robinho’s injury.

Petrov picked up the injury for Bulgaria in Wednesday’s international and was subbed on 30 minutes and the initial prognosis from yesterday’s scans doesn’t look good….

“We have an issue with Martin Petrov, who has an injury that we will have assessed over the weekend” remarked Hughes. “He will see a couple of more specialists but the view is that it is a significant injury and he could be out for quite some time.”

This new blow for the winger comes off the back of previous knee and hamstring injuries that have kept him out since the end of August. It’s not necessarily bad news for fantasy managers however. Petrov’s return was going to offer Hughes more options to shake things up and that could have put Ireland’s place in particular, in danger of rotation, despite his outstanding start to the season.

As for Robinho – Hughes is still largely in the dark but, going on reports from Brazilian medical staff, he seems confident.

“We are still waiting for definite news on it, but we are taking the view that we have heard nothing from Brazil’s medical department so we will make the assumption that he is fit and well”.