All very well ... but if City can get away with it ... what about Newcastle United and Cheik Tioté?
Yaya and Kolo Toure and Abdul Razak are all likely to feature in the Ivory Coast squad for the tournament in South Africa from 19 January to 10 February.
The trio's absence would leave Mancini short on numbers, although he is not sure if opting out is realistic.
Roberto Mancini: "If we lost Yaya and Kolo and maybe Abdul, who also has not played a lot of games here but maybe in January could be important if we have two or three players injured and we don't have other players....I hope that maybe they don't go in this competition.
"We talk and we need to talk more with their manager but it is difficult."