Carlos Tevez has been ruled out of Tuesday’s Premier League trip to Stoke City by Man City boss Roberto Mancini after he was granted leave to return home to Argentina for “family reasons”. Tevez has in fact returned for the birth of his child.

The striker was absent for Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Stoke in the FA Cup – this was later explained by the City boss, who went on to rule Tevez out of the midweek league encounter…

“I don’t think Carlos will be here….Hopefully he will be back in three days, but that would mean he couldn’t play on Tuesday.”

This latest twist will come as a cruel blow to those Fantasy Premier League managers who handed Tevez the armband for City’s double fixtures in gameweek 26. Tevez came good in the first fixture, converting a penalty against Bolton in the 2-0 win last Tuesday. While further returns at Stoke looked tricky, Tevez as captain promised to notch at least four points from starting the game…

While us Fantasy Managers wring our hands in frustration, Mancini now faces a selection headache for Tuesday’s game. Craig Bellamy was ruled out of this game by Mancini on Friday, although he is due to train on Monday and could now feature given the Tevez situation. Elsewhere Martin Petrov, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Stephen Ireland all picked up knocks in Saturday’s cup tie and are early doubts for Tuesday.

Mancini started with Emmanuel Adebayor on Saturday, with Roque Santa Cruz coming off the bench to replace Petrov. Adeabayor would seem certain most likely to lead that attack at Stoke and Mancini may well start with Adam Johnson, cup-tied on Saturday, just behind him in support in a 4-5-1.

Meanwhile, City’s replay with Stoke has been confirmed for Wednesday February 24, that’s just three days before the Premier League trip to Stamford Bridge. The winners of that replay will miss their fixture in gameweek 29, with the sixth round set to take place on March 6. More on that, and the other sides affected by their FA Cup progress in a follow-up article.