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Guardiola: Haaland will hopefully return in January

27 Dec 2023

Man City manager gives update on Norwegian, saying striker feels better but hasn't trained much

Pep Guardiola has given an update on Erling Haaland's possible return date saying that he hopes the striker will be back in the new year.

Haaland has been out of action since injuring his foot a few weeks ago and didn't feature in Manchester City's success at the FIFA Club World Cup.

“He’s training a lot but not with the team yet,” Guardiola told the club's official website said. “Kevin is with the team. Erling not yet but feels better.

“It’s not a stress or fracture but a question on when the pain will disappear. Hopefully [in January he will be back].

“He has a stress, the bone is fit but painful. He’s not like [Phil] Foden who is small and skinny, Erling is huge so it’s difficult at times.

“He’ll be fine, and when he is he’ll be back and play. The doctors come every morning and say ‘this player is available and this one is not’. Until then, I create the team and we play games.”

That means Haaland is likely to miss this weekend's match against Sheffield United and possibly their FA Cup third-round tie with Huddersfield Town on 7 January as well as their encounter with Newcastle United on 13 January.

Guardiola also spoke about Kevin De Bruyne, who is nearing a return to action having been injured a hamstring on the opening weekend of the season.

“He’s close but he had fatigue,” Guardiola added. “We have to be careful he’s been injured for three months like an ACL for six months, if you don’t handle the timings well, you get injured again.

“The injury was serious but he’s training with us. So positive and he’ll be back soon.

“I’d love him to play the next game or against Huddersfield but what is important is keeping him fit for a long time, not for one game or another.”

City sit in fourth in the league, after their 3-1 win against Everton on Wednesday evening and are five points adrift of leaders Liverpool, but the champions do have a match in hand.