Balotelli to undergo eye surgery

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has confirmed that Mario Balotelli will undergo eye surgery on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old Balotelli can no longer tolerate wearing contact lenses and requires surgery to correct his myopia.

Mancini said the Italian striker will not feature in City’s match with Queens Park Rangers on Saturday.

“Mario is not ready to return to the pitch yet. He no longer seems to tolerate contact lenses. He’s feeling alright now, but the problem can return any time,” Mancini said.

The City manager is already without key forward Sergio Aguero for the next couple of weeks after he picked up a knee injury in the opening game of the season.

On the subject on Aguero, Mancini conceded the Argentine effectively saved his job with his last-gasp goal against QPR last season, which gave City their first top-flight title in 44 years.

Reflecting on that moment, the Italian boss said his future would have been uncertain had Aguero not scored.

“Probably you would have been talking with another manager now,” Mancini told The Telegraph.

“We didn’t win the championship in the last second, though. We won the last championship during all the season.

“Football is beautiful because anything can happen in one game. I hope this year we can get the same result but don’t concede one or two goals a game.”

Mancini also looked forward to the high-profile clash between his side and Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid, after the Premier League champions were drawn alongside the La Liga winners, as well as Borussia Dortmund and Ajax in Group D of the Champions League.

“This is not Mourinho-Mancini, it is Real Madrid-Manchester City,” Mancini said.

“It is fantastic to play against three top teams, but we have four strong months until December when we finish the group and we need to have all the players ready every three days for this reason.”