Henrikh Mkhitaryan will learn on Wednesday night whether Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho still has faith in him.
Mkhitaryan has been left out of eight of United's last nine matchday squads after Mourinho accused the £27million midfielder of “disappearing” during games earlier in the season.
A regular in United's starting line-up at the start of the campaign, Mkhitaryan has been exiled by Mourinho and faces a huge battle to resurrect his seemingly doomed Old Trafford career.
Tonight United take on Bristol City, currently third in the Championship, in the Carabao Cup, with Mkhitaryan pushing for a recall to try to show Mourinho he can still deliver for him.
Mourinho refused to confirm if Mkhitaryan will be recalled tonight, but if the Armenia international is overlooked again, for a League Cup tie, it would effectively signal the end of his United career.
Asked if Mkhitaryan had a chance of being recalled,Mourinho said: “He can. I’m making a few changes for the match, but not many, not many.
“Bristol City are one of the best teams in the Championship and, for me now, the Championship is not the Championship any more of five, ten years ago.
“The Championship is now high quality teams with lots of high quality players that could be playing in the Premier League easily.
“We need to take the game really seriously, but I'm going to make a few changes and it’s possibly Miki is involved.
“In this moment, we're playing with Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford or Anthony Martial, and Romelu Lukaku.
“The bench has been Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] and one of the other ones - Martial or Rashford.
“There's no space for everybody because you need balance on the bench too.”
Former United striker Andy Cole, who played for Bristol City, said the Championship high-fliers will provide a stern test for Mourinho's side, who are holders of the trophy.
“It will be a big test because Bristol City are playing really good football,” said Cole. “There's a big difference to last season, when I thought they struggled a lot. But the way they've started this season has been great.
“I watched them at Sheffield United and they got a good result. This is the quarter-final of the cup, though, so you would expect a tough test.
“United are playing well. It wasn't the best result against Manchester City, but I still believe they should have enough to come here and win.
“There's no doubt that he'll shuffle the pack, because the festive period is upon us and there are a lot of games coming up.
“But whatever team he puts out will be strong, because this is United. There are some good players who haven't played as many minutes as they would have liked, so they might get an opportunity.”