Tevez targets return in two weeks

But the 28-year-old striker may have done his chances of resuming a career that has been placed on hold following a public bust-up with Roberto Mancini more harm than good by accusing the City boss of treating him "like a dog" during their Champions League loss to Bayern Munich.

The Argentina international has not played for the club since not warming up at the Allianz Arena at the end of September, but claimed he would be fit to play in a fortnight, and he said in an interview with Fox Sports in Argentina: "In two weeks I play, I think."

He added: "I do not think I was wrong, but if they (the club) think so I apologise. I am ready to return, to win and do the best for the club's shirt.

"Hopefully I can help City to be champions again. The most important thing for me is to return to get fit. I always said that at 28 I would retire. Today I say: 'No, I have much more to give'."

It appeared at one stage last month Tevez, who returned to Argentina after the row with City, would be shipped out as Inter Milan, AC Milan and Paris St Germain all showed an interest, but no move was forthcoming.

Mancini made it clear following his side's 1-0 win at Aston Villa on Sunday that enabled them to return to the top of the Barclays Premier League he was still seeking an apology from Tevez. The player highlighted in the interview, though, just how angry he was at the time with how Mancini behaved towards him that night in Munich.

He added: "I was kind of in a bad mood and when he brings on [Nigel] de Jong and takes off [Edin] Dzeko and we're losing 2-0 I thought it was a defensive substitution so I decided to sit back on the bench. I had already warmed up for 10 minutes and he has this attitude that he wants to lose 2-0 instead of 4-0.

"So I sat down and at the same time Dzeko comes off and is really angry and has a go at Mancini. He then sees the tunnel is closed so he has to sit down next to him and they start to have an argument. Dzeko was speaking Bosnian and Mancini would swear at him in Italian so it was a real mess.

"So I go and sit down and he doesn't see me because he's having this discussion. But then he turns around and sees me and you can imagine what happens. He's in the middle of an argument so then he tells me to keep on warming up and treats me like a dog."