Aguero injury blow for Man City

The injury that has forced Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero to the sidelines for Saturday's Premier League game against Sunderland must be particularly embarrassing. Trailing leader Manchester United by three points in the standings, City needs to keep winning to increase the pressure on its local rival. But the team will have to do it without its top striker because of an unspecified injury. ``It is a stupid injury,'' Man City manager Roberto Mancini said Friday, declining to elaborate further. ``It was not his fault but he can't play with this injury - for one day, 10 days or two weeks. I don't know.'' Aguero, who has scored 24 goals in 41 appearances this season, missed last week's match against Stoke with the same injury, reportedly to one of his feet. As the title race intensifies with only eight games to go, City will be stretched for goalscorers. Carlos Tevez has played only 40 minutes for City in the last six months and Edin Dzeko has not scored since February. Despite the questions about replacements, fans are left wondering what exactly Aguero did to himself. Whatever it was, the Argentine isn't the first footballer to force himself out of the lineup under bizarre circumstances. United defender Rio Ferdinand once managed to injure a tendon in his right knee while watching TV, while Rangers defender Kirk Broadfoot had to miss five months in 2009 after a poached egg exploded in his face and burned him. In 1975, Man United goalkeeper Alex Stepney dislocated his jaw while shouting at his defenders. Jerome Boateng, who had hurt his knee while playing for Germany in a friendly against Denmark, was forced to wait to make his Premier League debut for Man City a few weeks later in 2010 when he banged his injured limb into a trolley on a flight. ``I imagined my start at City to be quite different of course,'' Boateng said.