CARLOS TEVEZ COULD return against Swansea City in the Premier League on March 11 after playing 45 minutes for Manchester City’s reserve side.

Reserves coach David Platt oversaw the Argentine’s first football since his return to Manchester as his side were beaten 3-1 by Preston reserves in a rescheduled match at City’s Carrington training ground on Tuesday.

The venue switch was orchestrated to ward off media attention with the match, played behind closed doors, originally scheduled for Wednesday at Chorley.

Platt withdrew Tevez at half-time before his team-mates went on to lose, and, having echoed Roberto Mancini’s sentiments a day earlier, said a potential return against Swansea would provide plenty of competition for places.

“Carlos is back and he’s training. The manager (Mancini) has said he could be ready for the Swansea game in a fortnight, but it could be a little longer than that,” Platt said before the reserves match.

He then told the Manchester Evening News that Tevez’s addition to an attacking quartet of Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko and Mario Balotelli, who have scored 52 goals between them in all competitions, would only be a positive.

“The strikers have all had a threat to their place all season,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s been one occasion when all three have been on the pitch at one time so there is a threat to their places anyway, just as there is a threat to everybody else’s place in the team.”

Tevez last played for City in September before his infamous spat with Mancini in a Champions League match with Bayern Munich saw him suspended by the club.

He has been on a modified training program with Mancini putting a three-week return date on his comeback.
Platt could not confirm whether it would be against Swansea or how the City fans would react.

“I don’t know how the fans will react to him. I think we and Carlos have to cross that bridge when we come to it,” Platt said.

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