Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez insists that his comment about Roberto Mancini treating him “like a dog” was quoted out of context, defiantly declaring: “It is true, but I love it.”

The Argentine has refused to play for the Citizens ever since getting in a strop over being tricked into taking a bath last September, but according to sources he has finally gotten over this setback and looks set to justify Mancini’s decision to spend a sizeable chunk of the past few months going “here boy!” over Skype.

Tevez, an Aquarius, could even feature against Blackburn Rovers at the Etihad Stadium on February 25th, as long as he gets a tetanus shot on time and promises not to keep bursting the ball with his teeth.

He said: “I cannot wait to once again wear the shirt of Blue Manchester again, before tearing it playfully to shreds in the dressing room afterwards.

“When I said that Mancini treated me like a dog, I was just remembering the good old times – that game of fetch in Heaton Park, that hat-trick against Blackburn, that time he let me drink out of his loo.

“Roberto would never have called me a dog – I was more than that to him. I gave him a litter of puppies in the form of goals. I was like a dog that gave birth to goals.”

He added: “I suppose I was his bitch.”