What might be bad news for Manchester City striker Nicolas Anelka could be good news for Shaun Goater.

The ?13 million Frenchman is struggling to be fit for Saturday's clash with Leeds United at Maine Road and that could open the door for his Bermudian team-mate.

There are still three days to go before the Premiership match against Terry Venables' Yorkshiremen and sometimes clubs put out misinformation in an effort to confuse the opposition, but yesterday reported that Anelka was suffering from a badly cut foot and a tight hamstring. If that's true he could be set to miss his first match since joining Kevin Keegan's squad in the summer.

Goater has been warming the bench of late, having been dropped for the trip to Fulham at the end of December.

His last outing was a 20-minute run out against Liverpool in the FA Cup on Sunday, a match that ended 1-0 to the Reds but in which Goater could have levelled had his header not gone over the bar with just a few minutes remaining.

In his exclusive column in yesterday, Goater said he believed he would make the starting line-up this weekend.

At the time he probably thought that would be as a foil for Anelka but yesterday's news means the burden of responsibility could be on his 32-year-old shoulders, with Darren Huckerby possibly lining up alongside him.

City have invited Barcelona's Dutch international Michael Reiziger to spend today at the club with a view to joining them on loan until the end of the season.

The versatile 29-year-old defender, who won the European Cup with his first club Ajax Amsterdam, has fallen out of favour at Barcelona whom he joined from AC Milan in 1997.

"Michael will come in on Thursday and spend the day here," City boss Keegan said.

"He will have a look at the facilities and will then have to decide if he wants to come here on a loan deal which would be until the end of the season.

"He is a great player who has a terrific footballing CV, but at the moment it is too soon to talk of him being a City player or being included in the squad for the clash with Leeds."