Mancini welcomes Ben Arfa return

Roberto Mancini has praised Hatem Ben Arfa as he prepares to face Nigel de Jong for the first time since the Newcastle United winger broke his leg.Manchester City midfielder De Jong broke the leg of the France international in two places with a wild tackle when the two sides met in October last year.Ben Arfa has been able to make a full recovery and it emerged this week he is now prepared to accept the apology of the Dutch hard man after previously refusing.Mancini has welcomed the new stance of the former Marseille star and hopes De Jong's apology will bring an end to an unsavoury episode."This situation can happen in a game," said Mancini ahead of Saturday's meeting between the two unbeaten teams."It is important that Ben Arfa has come back without problem and can play, for me he is a good player. This is important."Having been left out of the starting line-up for City's last two games, Mancini has moved to reassure his midfield anchorman that he still has a big role to play at the Etihad Stadium.Contract talks between the Blues and De Jong's advisers over a new contract have yet to reach a positive conclusion.But Mancini is not worried about this and expects a new deal to be finalised in the not too distant future."Nigel is an important player for me and the squad but he had an injury and he was out for two months," he added."After that he came back and the squad played very well. I can't change the squad in this moment but he has played three or four games in the last month."I don't think we have a problem for the contract. He has this year plus another year. We have time to talk regarding the contract."