Sachin Tendulkar [Images] is unlikely to play in Sunday's IPL tie against Delhi Daredevils but a final decision on the matter will be taken only before the match, said Mumbai Indians' stand-in skipper Shaun Pollock [Images] on Saturday.

"He probably won't be playing tomorrow. It's very unlikely (Tendulkar playing), but the decision would be taken only tomorrow," Pollock told reporters on eve of the tie at the team hotel.

Sachin's fitness vital for Mumbai

The master batsman has missed the first five matches of the Twenty20 tournament and his team has struggled and recorded only one win, in their last tie against Kolkata Knight Riders, after four straight defeats and is languishing at the near-bottom of the eight-team table.

Pollock said the team physio was working hard on the master batsman and he was looking forward to play Sunday's game at the D Y Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

"But for the moment it looks unlikely. Obviously his absence would affect us, but he has not recovered enough," Pollock said about Tendulkar who practised a bit with the team at the Bandra-Kurla Complex of the Mumbai Cricket Association. 

Pollock praised young batsman Robin Uthappa for playing a sheet-anchor role during his match-winning century stand with the more attacking West Indian all rounder Dwayne Bravo [Images] which helped Mumbai beat Sourav Ganguly's [Images] team at the Eden Gardens.

"Robin showed a lot of maturity in that innings. He preferred to play the sheet-anchor role. In any form of cricket a century stand is special and even more so in a Twenty20 match. And when they came together we had lost three early wickets," the ace South African all rounder said.