Manchester City are waiting to discover whether Carlos Tevez will be back in England on Monday to attend his disciplinary hearing, with no guarantees forthcoming from the Argentinian as the club wound down for the weekend.

Tevez has been told to return to Manchester to explain why he flew to Buenos Aires this week without the club's permission but it remains unclear when, or if, he will fly back and the relationship between club and player is now so damaged City are not taking anything for granted.

The club have written to Tevez asking for an explanation, with duplicate emails going to the player's adviser, Kia Joorabchian, as well as one of his lawyers, written in English and Spanish to avoid the possibility that their former captain could cite language difficulties.

If Tevez was planning to reply, however, he has kept City waiting. The deadline was set at 5pm on Friday but a club spokesman confirmed shortly before that point they had not received anything. After the cut-off it is unclear what happens, with both sides making an agreement not to say anything.