Manchester City are sweating on the availability of Erling Haaland for their Premier League match against Liverpool on Saturday with Pep Guardiola saying that it will be down to the player as to whether he feels fit enough to start at the Etihad Stadium.
Haaland withdrew from Norway’s recent Euro 2024 qualifiers after suffering a groin injury in City’s last outing against Burnley in the FA Cup two weeks ago. The 22-year-old striker has since travelled to the Barcelona clinic of City’s trusted surgeon, Ramon Cugat, and returned to Manchester.
Although Haaland was unable to take part in team training on Thursday, he was due to feature in Friday afternoon’s session, after which an assessment was to be made on his availability for the weekend. “Erling is recovering,” Guardiola confirmed. “This afternoon we have the last training session and we’ll see how he feels.”
City, who trail leaders Arsenal by eight points with a game in hand, have a big few weeks ahead. They are set to face Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals and also host Mikel Arteta's team in what could prove to be a title showdown.
Therefore, it could be a risk to play Haaland this weekend if not fully fit. The prolific striker scored eight times during his 126 minutes on the pitch across the two games before the international break against RB Leipzig and Burnley, which remarkably took him to 42 goals for the season already.
Guardiola said he will be guided by his medical staff and the player’s feelings. “We’ll see today,” he said. “In the end the doctors and, especially, the player will decide how does he feel. Yesterday I spoke to him and he feels good but we’ll see what happens.
“Life is risks in these stages and you have to take it – he’s scored an incredible amount of goals – but in the past we have always scored a lot of goals in the season.”
'Liverpool remain an exceptional team'
City certainly do not lack alternatives and the likelihood is that Julian Alvarez will slot into the home team’s attack should Haaland be ruled unavailable.
The Argentina World Cup winner has scored 12 goals in 34 appearances since he completed his £14 million transfer from River Plate last summer and has recently been rewarded with a one-year contract extension.
However, the lack of Haaland would offer Liverpool a boost as they seek to salvage a top-four spot. City are currently 19 points ahead of Liverpool in the Premier League standings, which goes a long way in showing how far below Jurgen Klopp’s team have been from the high levels they have set themselves in previous seasons.
Nevertheless, Guardiola expects a difficult afternoon against the team that have challenged his City side the hardest in recent campaigns.
“They remain an exceptional team,” Guardiola said. “My opinion doesn’t change for one season when they have up and downs. Every club can have this happen. Now the biggest rival – this season – is another one, but for one game they can beat everyone. One game is one game.
“The question is about being consistent and always Liverpool have been. This season I don’t know why [they have not] and honestly I don’t care because I am not there, but, for what happened in the past, this season or the future, they’ll always be a big rival.”