Will Erling Haaland play for Man City against Liverpool after latest injury update?

Evening Standard

·21 febbraio 2025

Will Erling Haaland play for Man City against Liverpool after latest injury update?

The prolific striker is struggling with a knee injury

Erling Haaland remains a doubt for Manchester City’s Premier League showdown with Liverpool this weekend.

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Haaland suffered a knee issue during last weekend’s 4-0 win over Newcastle and looked in significant pain on the pitch, before he was replaced by Mateo Kovacic in the closing stages.

When speaking afterwards, Pep Guardiola issued a positive update on the Man City striker: "When he went down everyone was scared. But he walked off smiling and the doctor didn’t tell me bad news so hopefully he is fine.”

Optimism over Haaland grew at the beginning of the week as he took part in a training session and was subsequently named in the squad that flew to Spain for the crucial Champions League knockout play-off round second-leg decider against Real Madrid.

However, Haaland was an unused substitute at the Bernabeu and his fitness remains a concern for City, and Guardiola provided a fresh update 48 hours before Liverpool’s visit to the Etihad Stadium

“I don't know yet,” Guardiola said. “[Saturday] we will know.”

That coy update, along with Haaland’s lack of minutes in Madrid, has put significant doubt on Haaland’s participation against Liverpool.

Unused substitute: Erling Haaland did not play a single minute against Real Madrid

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Will Erling Haaland play for Man City against Liverpool?

As things stand, and taking into consideration that Haaland was on the bench on Wednesday night, he’s probably 50-50 to feature at the weekend.

Whether that be as a starter is another question as the update from Guardiola following the Real Madrid clash didn’t sound too positive.

“Erling, yesterday, tried to train after the action against Newcastle in the last minutes,” the Spaniard told reporters.

“Probably, with the images (scans) we have done, it’s fine but he has discomfort walking, for example with stairs, and we spoke yesterday and this morning and he said he’s not ready, he doesn’t feel good.”

City are set to make a late decision on Haaland’s availability and they could opt to be cautious with his fitness.

Sunday’s clash against Liverpool is a huge one for Arne Slot’s side, but City are not in the thick of a title race and could therefore decide not to risk aggravating Haaland’s issue.