Man City get Carlos Tevez tuned up for quick return

Carlos Tevez is targeting a return to the Manchester City squad for next week's Premier League clash with Chelsea after being handed a week of intensive training in an attempt to end his five-month exile from Roberto Mancini's plans.

The former City captain, absent from Mancini's match-day squad since the Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich last September, has been on a conditioning programme at the club's Carrington training ground since returning from an unauthorised three-month break in Buenos Aires on Feb 14.

Tevez has since made two appearances for the reserve team - scoring in last week's Manchester Senior Cup win against Bolton at Hyde - but the 28 year-old has been withdrawn from the travelling party for the second string's friendly with NEC Nijmegen in Holland tomorrow to hone his fitness on the training pitch ahead of the crucial encounter with Chelsea on March 21.

City manager Mancini admitted following Sunday's 1-0 defeat at Swansea, which enabled Manchester United to move to the top of the table, that Tevez was "maybe another 10 days" away from first-team fitness.

However, plans to push the Argentina forward on the training ground this week have been designed to ensure that he is available for selection against Chelsea, should Mancini choose to name him in the squad. Although the Italian insisted that Tevez was "finished" at the club after refusing to warm-up against Bayern five months ago, the Italian has softened his stance following the player's apology for his actions and is ready to consider him for first-team selection again.

The sentiment in the dressing room is also favourable towards a Tevez return and defender Micah Richards admits that the Argentine - a title winner with United in 2008 and 2009 - could be a crucial addition to the squad over the final 10 games of the league season.

"I've always been a big fan of Tevez," Richards said. "There were games last season when he carried us on his own. There were games like this [Swansea] last season where he would get a 1-0 win for us. I'd love to see him back.

"We need to go back and see where we're going wrong, why we're not scoring as many goals as we used to. Teams seem to be defending better against us. We were scoring four, fives and sixes against teams and now we've gone through a spell where we have been struggling to score."

With United claiming top spot ahead of a run of fixtures against teams in the bottom half of the table, City's forthcoming games against Chelsea and Arsenal, plus a trip to Stoke, has led to suggestions that Mancini's team face an uphill battle to overhaul Sir Alex Ferguson's side.

But Mancini claims that the title is still within City's reach. He said: "The title is long, but clearly at this moment their confidence is better. But it doesn't change anything. What is important is to be there at the end. In football, you never say never."

City full-back Richards admits that the players are struggling to cope with the heavy workload of Europa League and Premier League demands, however.

He said: "It's hard because you're playing Sunday and Thursday." He explained that City stayed in Portugal after Sporting Lisbon game until Saturday and did not get to their Swansea hotel until 7.30-8pm. "After a 21/2-hour flight, it does take it out of you," he said. "We must get on with it and we have more than enough players to get on with it.

"But having been first for so long, we've now slipped down to second. It's not over, but with United it's always going to be hard to pip them.

"This result against Swansea has made that game against United at our place even more massive now. But we have to concentrate on what we're doing. Chelsea is the next game and that will be tough, but it's at home where we're strong. It's a game that we have to win now."

Joleon Lescott is a doubt for Thursday's Europa League second leg against Sporting Lisbon, but "optimistic" about overcoming a groin injury in time to face Chelsea. Lescott, who missed the defeat at Swansea, underwent a scan on the injury yesterday [Monday] and will discover the results today.