Manchester City midfielder Gareth Barry has rubbished talk of a possible exit for controversial teammate Mario Balotelli amid reports the striker is unhappy at Eastlands.
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The Italian striker made his first start in six matches in City's 2-0 victory over Wigan on Wednesday night, breaking his goalscoring drought with the game's opener.
The enigmatic frontman is reportedly frustrated at a lack of regular first-team football and has even been linked with a return to Milan.
But Barry, his teammate at the Eastlands club, believes Balotelli will stay and has backed him to hit a good run of goalscoring form.
"I think he is happy," the England star said. "If you see him day to day then you'd see no reason for him not to be.
"Obviously he has probably not played as much as he would have liked but he has kept his head as well as anyone else who isn't getting chances.
"He scored some massive goals last season and if he can repeat that this season it'll be good for us."
Referring to his first goal of the league campaign, the 31-year-old added: "Any striker's first league goal is going to be massive in a season. To be fair to Mario, he has not had loads of chances.
"When you do get them you need to score them. He has taken a chance with his start here. It could be good for Mario. Hopefully he can go on a run now.
"Mario is not going to lack in confidence if he misses two or three. He'll keep trying the same things. Hopefully his goal will give him a bit more confidence and he can improve from there."
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