Bellamy, who is known to be upset at the departure of Mark Hughes, had to make do with a place on the bench for the Boxing Day win against The Potters at Eastland's but Mancini defended his decision not to play the City striker from the start of the game.
"Bellamy is my friend," said Mancini.
"There is no problem. I spoke with him two days ago. He understood when I told him he wasn't starting.
"We have two games in three days and I need all the players at 100%. Today we played Robinho.
"It is possible we will play Craig at Wolves on Monday."