Aguero ruled out for Man City ahead of trip to Stoke

Sergio Aguero is set to miss Manchester City’s Premier League trip to relegation-threatened Stoke City tonight after sustaining a knee injury in training.

Aguero, 29, announced on Twitter that he expected to be out for up to two weeks with the injury, meaning he could be back for the trip to Everton on March 31.

“During yesterday’s training I had a discomfort on my left knee.” the Argentine forward wrote.

“The club’s doctors told me I’ll be back with the team in approximately two weeks. Now it’s time for a full recovery.”

Aguero is City’s top scorer this season with 30 goals in 37 appearances in all competitions.

City’s only other out-and-out senior striker, Gabriel Jesus, returned to action in late February after suffering knee ligament damage against Crystal Palace in December.

The Brazilian was on target last week in his first game back against Basel in the Uefa Champions League.

If Aguero’s two-week timetable for a return proves correct, the Stoke match will be the only one he misses as City are not due to be in action again until the trip Everton, having been knocked out of the FA Cup.

They are due to arrive in Abu Dhabi later this week for a warm weather training camp.

However, Aguero could now miss Argentina’s friendly against Italy – due to be played at City’s Etihad Stadium – on March 23, and the match against Spain four days later.

City will look to restore their 16 point lead over Manchester United at the top of the Premier League with victory at Stoke tonight.

Stoke are second bottom of the table and have won only one of their past 10 league games.

For the league leaders it is also a chance to get back to winning ways after they were beaten 2-1 at home by Basel in midweek.

The result did not impact on their qualification for the quarter-finals, though, as they advanced 5-2 on aggregate.

It was their first loss at Etihad Stadium in 15 months, and Ukrainian defender Oleksandr Zinchenko said it is vital he and his teammates learn from the Basel loss to ensure they have a strong end to the season.

“We did a lot of simple mistakes, especially passes. At 4-0 [from the first leg] it was not the best game for us, but we didn’t have to play like that,” Zinchenko, 21, said.

“We need to make some analysis of that because we are still learning, we are not machines. We can play like that sometimes.

“The most important thing was we got through, but that was the only positive from the night.

“But now we have to look forward because we have a lot of games this season, especially in the Premier League, and we can win two [more] titles. Now we focus on Stoke.”

City were emphatic 7-2 victors over Stoke at Etihad Stadium when the sides faced each other in October.