While his new Manchester City team-mates were suffering embarrassment on the South Coast on Wednesday night, knocked out of the Carling Cup by Brighton & Hove Albion, Robinho, the club’s British-record signing, was busy trying to resolve outstanding domestic issues almost 6,000 miles away in Brazil.

News of Robinho’s absence from the City squad had disappointed the home crowd at the Withdean Stadium at the start of the evening — although it had long been forgotten by the end of what would be a memorable night — but it emerged yesterday that the Brazil forward, who was outstanding in the 6-0 victory over Portsmouth last Sunday, had been granted a period of leave by Mark Hughes, the manager, and had flown home to São Paulo.

Robinho was understood to be flying back last night, with the rest of the City squad having been given a day off yesterday, but he will have to be assessed when he returns to Carrington today. Although City do not play until Sunday afternoon, when they travel the short distance to Wigan Athletic, Hughes and his staff will be eager to monitor the 23-year-old’s physical condition in the knowledge that two nine-hour transatlantic flights in four days do not represent the ideal preparation for a Barclays Premier League match.

Hughes has sought to implement a far stricter disciplinary regime since taking over at City, having questioned some of the legacies from Sven-Göran Eriksson, whom he succeeded, but he is also acutely aware of the need to be flexible when dealing with overseas players, particularly, in Robinho’s case, a young superstar whose family is in São Paulo. When he was negotiating his £34.2 million transfer to City from Real Madrid little more than three weeks ago, Robinho sought assurances that he would be given some freedom to visit his family in Brazil during the season, but Hughes emphasised that this would happen only with his consent.

Hughes was more troubled by his team’s performance against Brighton, City surrendering a winning position by conceding an equalising goal to Glenn Murray with two minutes remaining in normal time before losing 5-3 in a penalty shoot-out.

With players such as Micah Richards and Shaun Wright-Phillips rested, along with Robinho, City had nothing of the panache displayed against Portsmouth. But Hughes suggested that the defeat by Coca-Cola League One opposition may help with the team’s development, having taken comfort from the performances of Pablo Zabaleta, the Argentina defender, and Michael Johnson, the England Under-21 midfield player.

“In defeat you learn more than when you win,” Hughes said. “So we will take it all on board and look at what positives there were. I thought that Pablo Zabaleta was outstanding again and he really tried to force the issue with the manner of his performance. Michael Johnson is another who will be better for the game. The [] injury has been hampering him, but he needs to train and play. There will be discomfort, but the question is whether it is manageable. He looked mobile, he was involved and I thought he did OK under the circumstances.”

City, though, remain a work in progress under Hughes and the ownership of the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment, with the wealthy new owners likely to look for more top-class reinforcements to join Robinho when the transfer window opens in January.

Reports in Spain suggest that City representatives watched Sergio Agüero, the outstanding Argentina forward, play for Atlético Madrid against Getafe on Wednesday night, but Javier Aguirre, the Atlético coach, said: “On the subject of him possibly leaving, he has a contract here, he is happy here and I’m sure that he is going to want to stay.”