An upbeat medical report means Manchester City will only likely be without Hart for around a fortnight with the ankle injury he sustained at Hull last Sunday, which kept him out of England's friendly win over Germany.

But with third-choice keeper Richard Martin also injured, the only back-up Hughes has for Kasper Schmeichel going into games against Arsenal, Schalke 04 in the UEFA Cup and Manchester United would be 18-year-old Norwegian Tobias Johansen.

Hughes said: "We have been given permission to bring in a goalkeeper on loan so we'll see what's out there.

"It would be just a short-term situation to cover us for a couple of games. We'll see who's available and see if it's worthwhile bringing anybody in."

With City stuttering in the Premier League, Hughes is keen to add some experienced back-up for Schmeichel, but admits the situation is not as serious as it might have been after Hart limped away from Hull on crutches.

Hughes added: "He's likely to be out for a minimum of two weeks but when the injury first occurred we thought it was going to be substantially longer than that.

"Thankfully it's not as bad as we first thought because we did initially think it was ligament damage. That's not the case, so he will be back sooner than we feared, which is good news."