MANCHESTER -- James Milner is a doubt for Manchester City's Champions League last-16 first leg with Barcelona after being ruled out of their game against his former club Newcastle with a knee injury.
City face an anxious wait to see if Milner, who has not trained all week, will be able to return in time for Tuesday's encounter with the 2011 European champions.
The England international has been one of the club's form players this season, making 33 appearances and scoring in last week's 4-1 win against Stoke.
Milner will definitely miss Saturday's Premier League clash against Newcastle and is the only member of City's squad who will be unavailable to Manuel Pellegrini.
"The only player that has a problem is James Milner," Pellegrini told a news conference. "He has a problem in his knee and he is not available for tomorrow [Saturday]. All the other players in the squad are fit."
Pellegrini believes Milner will not be a long-term absentee, adding: "It is not very, very serious but he couldn't work in the whole week so we will see how he improves in the next days. But he has a kick in his ligament in his knee."
The City manager has ruled out picking a team on Saturday with Tuesday's game against Barcelona in mind.
"I am just thinking about Newcastle," he said. "When we finish against Newcastle, we are going to start thinking about the Champions League and Barcelona."
Newcastle won 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium in the Capital One Cup in October, and Pellegrini is anticipating another tough game on Saturday.
"I always say Newcastle is a very good team. They have very good players and it is not easy to play against them" he said. "I hope we are going to recover our normal performance here at home but if we want to win we will need to play in a very good way with a lot of intensity."