The Bulgarian has not figured since August 2007 when he suffered a cruciate ligament injury in the derby win over Manchester United.

However, he has made a good recovery and manager Sven-Goran Eriksson is now planning to give Bojinov a run-out against Liverpool reserves on Thursday.

The 22-year-old, who signed from Italian side Fiorentina last summer, will then hope to play a part in City's end of season run-in.

"This Thursday the reserves play Liverpool, and he will take part in that, maybe for the last 20 or 30 minutes. He was much better this week than last, it's looking much better for him," Eriksson told the club's official website.

"He's doing everything in training now, he's still far away from being 100 per cent but it would be great for him, mentally, if he could get one more taste of the Premier League this season. I'm sure he wishes it was not ending so soon."

www.mcfc.co.uk