Sergio Agüero has reported good progress as he works his way towards a return to action against Liverpool a week on Saturday.

The striker has not played for Manchester City since scoring five in the 6-1 demolition of Newcastle on 3 October, sustaining a hamstring injury soon after while on duty with Argentina.

Following Sunday’s 0-0 draw at Aston Villa, the City manager Manuel Pellegrini – who saw striker Wilfried Bony limp off in that game with a hamstring injury of his own – expressed his hope Agüero would be making an imminent comeback to full training with the squad.

Having posted, on Twitter, pictures of himself training alone outdoors and indoors accompanied by the message “giving it my all on recovery work”, Agüero told City’s official website on Tuesday: “I don’t think I’m too far away now. Physically, I feel good and I’ve kept as fit as I can during my lay-off.”

Agüero said: “I still need to work hard for another week and if not this week, then maybe next, I hope to start training with the rest of the lads and so my target is Liverpool.

“I’ll take things slowly and not rush into anything, but I’m not far away.”

City lead the Premier League on goal difference from Arsenal, and the 27-year-old added: “We need to focus on what we’ve been doing and keep it going because we have an important game coming up against Liverpool and the result at Aston Villa wasn’t exactly what we’d wanted.”