Manchester City boss Mark Hughes is to gamble on delaying knee surgery on Martin Petrov until the end of the season. Hughes says City will wait to see if the Bulgarian's knee strengthens up before booking the winger in for surgery.

"Our recent thoughts were that he was going to be out for quite some time and that could still be the case," said Hughes on Sky Sports News.

"He went to see a specialist in Spain, it was the guy who looked after him when he did his ACL initially, and the report has come back and that's intact.

"He does have a problem with the meniscus, but the view is maybe for the next couple of weeks we will try and build up the strength around the injury and see how we go.

"If, after two weeks, it shows no marked improvement then we will have to do something about the injury and he will be out for a significant amount of time, so at this moment in time, for the next few weeks, we're hoping that maybe strengthening around the injury may take the pressure off and he may be able to play and get it done at the end of the year.

"It's a long shot, but it's worth taking for the sake of a couple of weeks."