MANCHESTER -- Edin Dzeko could make his Manchester City comeback when they face Everton on Dec. 6.
Dzeko, 28, who suffered a calf injury in City's 2-2 draw against Queens Park Rangers on Nov. 8, has missed their last two games.
And the Bosnia-Herzegovina international will sit out the Premier League champions' next two fixtures -- away at Southampton on Sunday and Sunderland on Wednesday -- along with injured duo David Silva and Aleksandar Kolarov.
But City manager Manuel Pellegrini believes the striker, who has scored four goals this season, could be fit when Roberto Martinez's team visit the Etihad Stadium next month.
He told a news conference: "The three of them continue [to be] injured. They will not be fit for this week. I suppose Edin will be fit next week. All the other players don't have any important problems so I hope all of them will be fit for Sunday.
"Edin has a muscle injury in his calf, same thing as Aleks Kolarov, and David has important damage in his ligaments. We knew that it would [take] a long time to recover the three of them."
City, who are third in the Premier League table, visit second-placed Southampton on Sunday, and Pellegrini claims it is no shock that the Saints are doing so well, despite losing manager Mauricio Pochettino and a number of key players in the summer.
"I am not surprised," he said. "Southampton are a very good team with good players and they are playing very well. If you review last season, I think Southampton were very near this position in this week. It was an important team also, especially in the first round of fixtures so for me it is not a surprise. That is a merit of Ronald Koeman, that four or five players that were at Southampton last year are not there today."
City will move up to second with a win and Pellegrini said he believes the week is a pivotal one as he looks to close the gap on league leaders Chelsea.
He added: "It is an important game because we need the three points and we can be in the second place. It is always better to be second than third but it is not only this game. This is the first game of the three we must play this week in the Premier League and I hope after the three we can be second place and be near to Chelsea."