Soccer:Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini will monitor Mario Balotelli's fitness after the Italian striker suffered an allergic reaction during the Europa League defeat by Dynamo Kiev.
Whether the €30 million summer signing from Inter Milan will come into contention for the home FA Cup quarter-final with Championship side Reading on Sunday remains to be seen.
Balotelli (20) eventually came off in the 57th minute last night after being over a minute late coming out for the second half with City losing 2-0 in this last-16 first leg game.
He appeared in some distress and was constantly rubbing his face before being replaced by Carlos Tevez.
Mancini said: "Mario had an allergy, I don't know what, his face was swollen, I don't know why. He wanted to play in the second half but he had this problem 10 seconds before coming out.
"I came out a minute before the players and I didn't see Mario. He then said he could play but his face was swollen."
It is understood 20-year-old Balotelli is allergic to certain types of grass.
City's only shot of note came from Yaya Toure in the second half with the score at 1-0 but goalkeeper Olexandr Shovkovskiy got down quickly to turn his effort around the post.
Mancini is convinced they can keep their European campaign going and make the quarter-finals of the competition.
He said: "I think we had some problems and I hope that it can improve with the strikers for the return match. If the strikers improve and the defenders pay attention maybe we have a chance to go through.
"Dynamo Kiev were fresher than us. A few of us in the championship we have played (recently) every three days."
Goals from former Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko and Oleh Gusev either side of half-time handed Dynamo a useful advantage in Ukraine.
Mancini was critical of City's defending with goalkeeper Joe Hart culpable for the first goal and Micah Richards for the second.
The Italian boss said: "I think that 2-0 is not a good result but at Eastlands it will be a different game. We played a good game, the difference are the goals we conceded. Usually we don't concede goals like this, we are more professional. We conceded two stupid goals. They played on the counter, so I'm frustrated.
"We didn't mark well for the first goal, the second goal the same. We were four or five metres from the opponent. When you mark in the box you should be near."
