Manuel Pellegrini confirmed that his star striker will be back in the saddle when Jurgen Klopp brings his Liverpool side to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday evening.
However, there was bad news on the condition of David Silva as the Spanish playmaker is still working his way back from an ankle injury.
“Sergio is fit – he’s ready to come back,” Pellegrini told journalists at his pre-match press conference.
“David continues with some small sprain in his ankle so it’s a risk for him to play. Unfortunately also, Samir Nasri is injured. Bony and Vincent Kompany are also injured.
“One of the merits of this team is not just to depend on one player but of course our team is better with Sergio.”
City go into this meeting with the Merseysiders unbeaten in almost two months and Manuel is eager for his side to keep up the form which fired them to the top of the Premier League and through to the knockout rounds of the Champions League.
He said: “It’s important to retain the same way we finished – at the moment we are having a good season.
“We’re the only English team to have qualified for the next round of the Champions League. We’ve also qualified for the quarter final of the Capital One Cup and we’re top of the Premier League.
“One of the most important things in important games is to have a cold mind, not a cold heart but a cold mind. It’s so important and I hope we can do it.
“I think that for me it is never a pressure to be top – you always want to be top as you only depend on what you can do. For me it’s a pleasure to be top and we’ll continue to try to be – it doesn’t matter what happens, we’re always the favourites with the media and seen as the team to beat.”
Judging by the questions fielded by journalists at the press conference, much of the pre-match narrative looks likely to centre on James Milner and Raheem Sterling facing off against their former employers.
According to Manuel, City did all they could to keep James at the club and he also backed Raheem to be an important player for club and country for many years to come.
“I always think that it’s special for every player to play against the team they worked for for a lot of years,” Manuel reflected.
“For James Milner it will be exactly the same - it’s part of the career of a player.
“It was not difficult as we did all we could to convince James to stay but he wanted to go and have another challenge - we understand but we could not do any more to convince him
“I always said for the beginning that Raheem is a very young player who must improve a lot. It’s important he must demonstrate this in every game.
“He’s just 20 years old so he has a lot of years to work. I think he will be an important player, not just for City but for England too.”
