James Milner has admitted Yaya Toure will be a major loss to Manchester City during the African Nations Cup but is confident the Premier League champions can cope without their vice captain.
Midfielder Toure played his final game for City in Sunday's FA Cup win over Sheffield on Wednesday and may not be seen again in their colours until the middle of February.
The 31-year-old has scored six goals in his last nine games but Milner hopes that keeping Frank Lampard until the end of the season will cushion the blow of Toure's departure.
He said: "He is obviously going to be a big miss but I think we have shown, with the injuries we have had and the players that are out, we can deal with that with the squad we have got.
"It is great to have Lamps here as well. He is a big player for us. Yaya is a big miss for us because of what he has done at the club but we have to deal with that and carry on this run we have been on."
Milner said that he has learned lessons from watching Sergio Aguero as he adapts to his new role as City's makeshift striker.
The versatile midfielder was pushed into attack when City's three senior specialist forwards were all injured and trebled his goal tally for the season with a match-winning brace against on Wednesday.
But he feels that playing alongside 19-goal top scorer Aguero has helped prepare him for the role.
"It is a bit different obviously," he added. "Most of the game is with your back to goal really but you are making different runs. But I have been playing football a long time now. You learn your role but when you train every day watching the likes of Sergio Aguero, and watching football, you take notice of things and then if you are asked to do that job you know how to do it. That's how I do it and try to do the role to the best of my ability."
Milner has occupied every outfield position during his professional career and said he is happier to be pressed into service in attack than defence.
"I used to play there when I was younger and it's nice," the 29-year-old said. "I definitely prefer it to right-back. If I can replace right-back with [going] up front, I'll take that any day."
City have now won 11 and drawn one of their last 12 games but face three of last season's top five -- Everton, Arsenal and Chelsea -- in their next three league games.
"We've got some tough games coming up," Milner said. "But a few of the lads are coming back, we are on a good run. I think we had one blip results-wise over Christmas but apart from that I think we have been pretty solid through the month of December."
City drew level on points with Chelsea at the summit of the Premier League on New Year's Day when they beat Sunderland 3-2 and Jose Mourinho's side lost 5-3 at Tottenham.
And, despite the difficult fixtures, Milner hopes to be ahead of Chelsea when City visit Stamford Bridge for a potential title decider on Jan. 31.
"Hopefully we'll be looking to open up a little gap of our own," he said. "You look at this run and people think it is tougher than the games we had over Christmas but -- and it is an old cliche in the Premier League -- there are form teams and out-of-form teams.
"Every game is difficult. You've got teams at the bottom who look and think: 'we're going to win that game.' Look at Burnley coming here and how well they played [in a 2-2 draw]. Sometimes it is easier to play against teams who are mid-table and pushing for Europe and are moving it around a lot more. Who knows what an easy game is? It is the Premier League."