Speaking before Man City’s match with Red Star Belgrade in the Champion League, coach Pep Guardiola updated Erling Haaland’s situation.
Man City’s No. 1 striker missed the 2-1 win over Luton Town on Sunday due to a foot injury. Erling Haaland was absent from Man City’s first team training session on Tuesday morning, before Blue Man’s final Champions League group stage match against Red Star Belgrade.
Coach Pep Guardiola has confirmed that the Norway international is expected to return to training on Thursday. When asked if Haaland had trained since the win over Luton, Guardiola said: “No. I think he’ll be back on Thursday. We’ll see how he feels.”
When asked if Haaland would be fit to face Crystal Palace on Saturday, Guardiola replied: “At the moment I don’t know. At the press conference before the match against Palace I was able to speak more precisely about his condition.”
Man City has passed the Champions League group stage at the top of Group G, Pep confirmed that the Blue Man will have changes to the starting lineup in the procedural match with Red Star Belgrade. “We have so many matches, we will have to rotate the squad,” he said.
Tomorrow I’m happy to see that many players who haven’t played recently will be present, they will have a chance to express themselves and I hope they will play well. Of course, we want to close the group stage with a victory.”