"He is fine, but we must be careful with the way we improve his minutes to avoid a muscle injury," Pellegrini told a news conference ahead of Wednesday's league visit to Manchester City.
"He played 15 minutes and did very well. The important thing is he is not afraid of playing or worried about his knee, so we will try to give him more minutes in every game."
Pellegrini, who guided City to a league title and a League Cup triumph in 2014, expects a tough test but backed his ninth-placed team to express themselves against the champions.
Second-placed City come into the contest high on confidence after retaining their League Cup trophy by beating Chelsea in the final on Sunday.
"We want to play with trust as we have against big teams at home," the Chilean added. "We can't give time and space to them and must concentrate on defending, but we'll also try to attack and have possession."
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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