The striker was given compassionate leave by the club following the attack on the Togo team before the start of the African Cup of Nations. After spending time with his family and attending the funerals of those killed in the incident, Emmanuel flew back to Manchester on Sunday and trained with his City team mates ahead of the visit to Old Trafford.
“Emmanuel is fine,” reported Blues boss Roberto Mancini, “he trained with us on Monday for the first time and came through OK. I have spoken with him about what happened when he was away, he’s very quiet but he is focussed on the game with United. There is no problem with him for tomorrow.
It’s important that he is well and that he is concentrating on the game tomorrow. There is a chance he will be on the bench, he will only have trained twice with the squad since coming back, but having seen him I think he will be ready to play some part.
...Boss on Ade...
The Ivory Coast’s departure from the tournament at the hands of Algeria on Sunday means that Kolo Toure will be back with squad, earlier than the player may have wanted but providing his club manager with another possible option.
“I’m very sorry for him, but happy for the club!” laughs the boss. “He is coming back tonight so we will have to see how he is tomorrow. We’ll decide on Tuesday, but with Kolo fitness should not be a problem as he only played three days ago. I hope he can play, but I understand that he may be tired after the flight.
“Because of this, I can’t decide until tomorrow’s training session. But at least he and Emmanuel are both back with us, I hope to have a nice problem when picking my teams for the games to come.”
Patrick Vieira will not feature at Old Trafford, the experienced midfielder has still not recovered from the calf problem that he picked up in his last game for Inter Milan, and Mancini is not willing to take a chance on the Frenchman.
“It’s better that we don’t risk Patrick, he won’t be ready for United but I hope that he will be for Portsmouth or maybe Hull after that.”
When asked about possible business in the transfer window at his Tuesday lunchtime press conference, the Manager stressed that he won’t think about any possible arrivals or departures until after Wednesday’s game.
“We have only five days of the window left, but we have such an important game tomorrow that we must concentrate on first. After the game it’s possible we might bring in more players but we must respect the players we have here now.”
There’s more from the Manager in this exclusive interview on video.
