• Premier League

Aguero injury not my fault - Pellegrini

ESPN staff
February 1, 2014
The FC crew talk about how Aguero's injury will affect The Citizens.

Manuel Pellegrini has refused to shoulder the blame for the hamstring injury that has sidelined Manchester City's top scorer Sergio Aguero for a month.

Aguero is likely to miss the first leg of City's Champions League last-16 tie with Barcelona, and is certainly out of the home Premier League clash against Chelsea on Monday, as well as the FA Cup fifth-round meeting between the two sides.

He may also miss out on City's trip to Wembley for the Capital One Cup final against Sunderland on March 2. The striker had scored seven goals in five games since returning from an eight-match absence with a calf injury, before limping off against Tottenham.

Aguero had played 90 minutes and scored a hat-trick in the 4-2 FA Cup win over Watford last weekend. Pellegrini admitted after the game he would have substituted the striker earlier had City not been losing 2-0, and has again reiterated he would have done the same.

"It wasn't a mistake because for us the most important thing is to win the match that we have to play," said Pellegrini. "At that moment we were losing and it was important for Sergio to continue playing.

"Maybe if we were winning, he would have played 75 minutes so it was not an important amount. Maybe he played 10 or 15 minutes more, but I don't think that was directly related to his injury - I would make the same decision."

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