Aguero injured, Wilfried Bony to step up to the plate

REUTERS – Sergio Aguero’s misfortune could turn out to be Wilfried Bony’s gain as the Ivorian striker is ready to grasp his chance in the Manchester City lineup with Aguero facing at least a month on the sidelines due to a hamstring injury.

Bony, who arrived from Swansea City for a reported 28 million pounds ($43.4 million) last season, has started just five games in 10 months at the Etihad Stadium but now has a chance to make his mark in City’s attack.

The Premier League leaders host Bournemouth on Saturday.

“It’s never good when your team mates are injured but that’s the way football goes sometimes,” Bony told the club’s website (www.mcfc.co.uk).

“Now I need to take things game by game and work hard. I have to take my chance and score goals for the team — that’s why I’m here.”

The 26-year-old has found it tough to break into the starting side due to the form of Aguero, while his progress has also been hampered by a series of injuries that restricted him to just two goals in 19 appearances.

“A lot of crazy things have happened since I joined City and I’ve been ruled out with injury three or four times so it’s been hard to find any rhythm playing one or two games here and there,” he said.

“It’s been the worst spell of my career without question — in the past five years I’d never missed more than two games in a row and at Swansea I only missed a handful of matches and that was mostly because of a red card I received.

“I’ve had nothing but bad luck in the past year, but hopefully, that’s the end of it now. It’s not been the best time for me in that respect and has been very frustrating, but hopefully the City fans will now see the new Bony,” he added.

“All I need is the first goal to come and hopefully many others will follow.”

($1 = 0.6457 pounds)

(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)