Joleon Lescott is set to miss the rest of the season for Manchester City, sparking fears the defender may also be out of the World Cup.

Lescott, who has been out for three weeks with a hamstring problem, has made little progress in his recovery and is not expected back before the end of the campaign.

He suffered a partial tear of a hamstring tendon in the warm-up before City’s game at Fulham three weeks ago and the initial prognosis was that he would be out for a month at most.

But it now seems the £24million defender, who is understood to have been using an oxygen tent to speed up his recovery, may not play again this season.

And that means Lescott, whose versatility in being able to play at left-back has made him a key player for England boss Fabio Capello, could now miss out on going to South Africa.

Although City are hopeful Lescott will feature at some point before the end of the season, the prognosis is bleak, with boss Roberto Mancini admitting he has no idea when he will return.

“Joleon is working hard every day but at the moment we have no news,” said Mancini. “We have had a lot of injuries this season.

“We have three or four players injured and I hope that in the last six games we are able to play with a full team.”

City, currently in fourth, a point ahead of Tottenham with a game in hand, take on Birmingham at Eastlands tomorrow, where a win will see them take a step closer towards securing the final Champions League spot.

Mancini’s players go into tomorrow’s encounter on the back of their emphatic 6-1 win over Burnley last weekend, and the City boss has ordered more of the same from his team.

“The most important thing is that we concentrate on our remaining six games now,” said Mancini.

“That performance at Burnley is finished now. It’s not the most important thing now. It’s in the past.

“It was good for the team to score so many goals, but now we must look forwards.

“There are still four teams going for fourth place and it will be difficult for anyone of us to get it.

“But we must have the same concentration that we showed in other recent matches. Four of our last six games are at home and that’s an important advantage.

“I don’t know how many games we will need to win but we must just think of one game at a time.”

City will be looking to leading scorer Carlos Tevez, with 26 goals this season, to inspire them against Birmingham, and Mancini compared him to Wayne Rooney in terms of his importance.

“Carlos is most important to us - just like Rooney is to United,” said Mancini. “I hope we have improved as a team in the last four months I have been here.

“If we want to mprove we must work every hard every day. And we need time. In four months it’s difficult to improve 200 per cent.

“But we can still improve, and after six months or a year we can improve even more.”