Mancini defends Hargreaves omission



Roberto Mancini has defended his decision not to include Owen Hargreaves in his Champions League squad.
The Manchester City boss picked Hargreaves up for nothing on the penultimate day of the transfer window when even assistant boss David Platt admitted it was a calculated gamble on City's part.
Hargreaves scored in Wednesday night's 2-0 Carling Cup win over holders Birmingham at the Etihad Stadium, but it will not earn him an emotional trip back to Bayern Munich next week for City's latest Champions League adventure as the 30-year-old was not included when Mancini submitted his 25-man squad.
"We didn't know what his condition would be when we had to decide," said Mancini. "It was difficult. It is possible we could bring him in during January.
"He hasn't had any problems in the last three weeks. At the moment his knee is fine. We said before the match we would give him between 45 and 60 minutes. As it turned out, he was okay for 60.
"But he has only played 60 minutes. Now it is important that he recovers properly because he can be good for us and England. After so long out, I don't think it was easy for him before the game. But he worked well and scored a fantastic goal."