City's top scorer Sergio Aguero is back in contention for the Capital One Cup final on Sunday, manager Manuel Pellegrini has revealed.
Aguero, who has missed the last five games with a hamstring injury, returned to training earlier this week with an eye on a comeback against Sunderland at Wembley.
His potential inclusion gives City a huge lift with the Argentina striker having scored 26 goals this season before limping out of the 5-1 win at Tottenham on January 29.
Manuel Pellegrini: "It is something I must decide from Saturday, and see the way he recovers from the work this week, if he is 100 per cent fit after his injury, to play the whole match."
Fellow forward Stevan Jovetic, who has had little luck since joining City in a £22million move from Fiorentina last summer, has been ruled out.
The Montenegro international came off the bench during last week's Barclays Premier League win over Stoke only to go off again with a hamstring problem.
Defender Matija Nastasic, who has missed four games with a knee injury, is also out.
Pellegrini has used squad players such as Costel Pantilimon and Joleon Lescott in the earlier rounds but gave away no clues as to whether they might again feature.
He said: "It is not easy to choose the 11 starters, all the players deserve to play.
"I will try to choose the best 11 starters for this team as I did in all the other games."
Pellegrini expects his City players to have learnt from last year's Wembley nightmare.
Pellegrini, appointed last summer, was still at Malaga when City suffered a shock loss to Wigan - in what proved Roberto Mancini's last match in charge - in the FA Cup final last May.
The new man in charge is not interested in looking back at what went wrong under a different manager on that day, but does think the players could take extra motivation from it.
The Chilean said: "I don't like to talk with them about what happened last year but I am sure for every player it is a lesson.
"It is very beautiful to play for a title at Wembley and very awful to lose it.
"For all of them it is not revenge - it is another team, another year, another situation - but I am absolutely sure all will be 100 per cent motivated to win."
Last month talk of a quadruple bid was rife but that has quietened down after losing to title rivals Chelsea in the Barclays Premier League and a potentially decisive Champions League defeat to Barcelona.
"We would be very happy if we achieve it because it reflects all your work from the year," said Pellegrini. "This our first possibility.
"We have played play a very good Capital One Cup because we have won all the games, scored 19 goals and conceded just one.
"I think it is very important to win the cup and the way we play."