SOCCER:ROBERTO MANCINI has confirmed Carlos Tevez will captain Manchester City in the FA Cup final against Stoke City if he proves his fitness in time to play. The Argentina striker has just returned to Manchester after receiving treatment in Milan from Daniel Martinez, a doctor with his national team, and Mancini is targeting the game against Tottenham Hotspur, four days before the FA Cup final, as the ideal occasion for Tevez to return after a hamstring injury.
“It is difficult to say if Carlos will play in the final, but it will only happen if he can come back against Tottenham first,” the City manager said.
“It is very important Carlos is 100 per cent recovered, not 60 per cent or 70 per cent. Now he is back in training with us and he has started running again. We will do everything so he can recover.”
City have been competently captained in the last few weeks by Vincent Kompany, but the defender has already said he would not a have a problem stepping down should Tevez return for Wembley, and Mancini explained the captaincy will revert to Tevez as soon as he resumes playing.
Having handed Tevez the armband in the first place to help him make up his mind about staying at the club, Mancini is not about to change tack now, even though the player has so far refused to commit his future to the club and made his own decision to seek treatment in Italy, where naturally he has been linked with other clubs.
Meanwhile Matthew Etherington’s hopes of playing in the final next month have been all but extinguished after it emerged the Stoke City winger has torn a hamstring. Etherington was carried off on a stretcher after he collapsed in agony during Stoke’s victory over Wolves on Tuesday, and the player and the club’s worst fears were realised when they received the scan results.
The 29-year-old has been one of Stoke’s most influential players over the past couple of seasons and a torn hamstring can often take up to six weeks to heal. But Pulis is determined to cling to the slimmest of chances that the former West Ham player will defy the odds.
“He’s had the scan, he’s got a torn hamstring and we’ll know better in seven days how much chance he’s got,” he said.
“He’ll be treated and looked after as best we can. We’ve got to do our damnedest in the next seven days to put him in a position where we give him the best opportunity to play in the cup final. His leg could be hanging off and I wouldn’t rule him out.”
