Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick admits he was in the dark over Cristiano Ronaldo's trip to Portugal last weekend.
Ronaldo missed the 4-1 thrashing by City on Sunday with a hip flexor injury that sidelined him for FA Cup and Premier League matches against Aston Villa in January.
The 37-year-old flew to Portugal as United players had a designated day off on Monday before reporting for training at the club's Carrington training complex on Tuesday with the rest of the squad.
Ronaldo completed a full training session on Thursday and could return to the starting XI against Tottenham in United's last Premier League fixture for three weeks.
"As I said, it happened last week," Rangnick said of Ronaldo's absence against City. "I didn't know anything about that trip. It doesn't make sense now to waste energy and deal with it because the games we have to play now are too important.
"I decided to put my focus on the upcoming games and not waste any energy with things that happened in the last six or seven days."
When asked whether Ronaldo was fit enough to start against Spurs and then line up against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League round-of-16 second leg three days later, Rangnick added: "Right now we only think about tomorrow's game, we don't think at all about the game on Tuesday.
"The formation and line-up for tomorrow's game has got nothing to do with Tuesday."
Need a VPN? Or seeking to switch? Then support Tribal Football by clicking here to sign up with our official partners NordVPN. Not only will you receive the best VPN experience, but also great discounts by signing up via Tribal Football. Thanks for your support!