Petrov may be out for six months

Mark Hughes is facing up to the prospect of having Martin Petrov missing for up to six months after the Bulgarian left midfielder fell awkwardly after challenging for a ball, half an hour into Bulgaria's World Cup qualifier in Georgia on Wednesday.

The Manchester City manager's fears that Petrov has suffered the anterior cruciate ligament injury that every footballer dreads are compounded by the fact that the 29-year-old has had problems in that area before. The assessment process will involve him returning to see the surgeon who operated on him last time.

It is a bad blow for City, since Petrov was one of the side's outstanding players last season, but Hughes is philosophical about his players being called up to international duty. His years managing Wales have given him a sense of life on both sides. But he could not disguise doubts about the wisdom of Bulgaria calling up a player whose time on the field hitherto had been limited to 15 minutes against Omonia in the Uefa Cup and 20 minutes against Liverpool.

"You can have those conversations [with international managers] and you might like to think they are understanding and mindful of the situation and the player communicates that he hasn't had a great deal of football for his club. But players will always want to play for their country," Hughes said, at the end of a week in which Fernando Torres' injury for Spain incurred the wrath of Rafael Benitez.

"You take the view that maybe he needed a game because he'd been out for a while. Maybe you think he could play for half an hour or 45 minutes of the international game. But the danger is when you are playing in a full-blooded international you stay on and it is sometimes to the detriment of the player."

Hughes just about resisted suggestions that he should be more selfish, now that he is a club manager. "The regulations are in the international side's favour. If they insist that players report, then they have to report," he said. "When a player is fit when he leaves here there's nothing you can do."

Hughes was also puzzled by the decision to call goalkeeper Joe Hart into the England party for the World Cup qualifier in Belarus. Hart and the Middlesbrough defender David Wheater (the latter, to the extreme irritation of his manager, Gareth Southgate) were drafted in immediately after helping the Under-21s side secure their place in the European Championship finals. "It was a long way to go just to sit in the stand, and he had played two games in a short space of time as well," Hughes said.

But ahead of City's game at Newcastle on Monday, there was better news on Robinho, who was carried off on a stretcher during Brazil's goalless draw in Rio in midweek. "We are still waiting for definite news on it, but we are taking the view that we have heard nothing from Brazil's medical department so we will make the assumption that he is fit and well," Hughes said.

Club or country?: The wounded patriots

*At least 18 Premier League players were injured on international duty.

Arsenal: Bacary Sagna, William Gallas, Nicklas Bendtner, Johan Djourou;

Aston Villa: Gabriel Agbonlahor; Bolton: Heidar Helguson, Gretar Steinsson; chelsea: Ashley Cole, Michael Ballack;

Everton: Segundo Castillo;

Liverpool: Fernando Torres, Ryan Babel;

Manchester City: Martin Petrov, Robinho;

Portsmouth: Lassana Diarra; Sunderland: Dwight Yorke;

Wigan: Emile Heskey, Amr Zaki.