Erling Haaland ‘feels better’ but Pep Guardiola will make a late call on his fitness
Pep Guardiola has provided an injury update on Manchester City striker Erling Haaland ahead of Wednesday’s Premier League trip to Tottenham.
Haaland, who has scored 19 goals across 25 top-flight games this term, was not named in the City squad who lost 2-0 at home to Liverpool on Sunday.
The Norway international been struggling with a knee problem, which is also why he was an unused substitute for last week’s 3-1 Champions League defeat at Real Madrid.
After the loss to Liverpool at the Etihad, City boss Guardiola admitted he ‘did not know’ when the 24-year-old would be able to make his return.
Guardiola has now shared a fresh update, stating that Haaland ‘feels better’ and he will make a late call whether or not to use him against Spurs.
‘Tonight (Tuesday) we will know it, after training,’ Guardiola said in his pre-match press conference before the clash at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
‘I hope so, but I don’t know yet… He feels better, but in the last two games he could not play, we’ll see tomorrow (Wednesday).’
Pep Guardiola was left irked by Jamie Carragher’s comments
Guardiola has been involved in a row with football pundit Jamie Carragher over Haaland’s knee injury, after the former Liverpool defender suggested that the Norwegian was scared of facing Real Madrid star Antonio Rudiger.
‘Oh God, did Jamie Carragher say that? Oh God,’ Guardiola said on Saturday. ‘I don’t laugh.
‘I don’t know why it’d be that suspicious. Do you think Erling Haaland didn’t want to play that game?
‘It’s not true. It was crazy to play the game. He had a problem in his knee and he could not play.’
In response, Carragher claimed that his comments were a ‘joke’ as he took aim at a journalist in a social media post.
Carragher wrote on X: ‘It was a joke to wind up Micah Richards as that’s the nature of our show on CBS and you know that @MullockSMirror but you just thought let’s get a big headline for my piece! Typical Sunday papers!!!’
Simon Mullock, the Sunday Mirror’s chief football writer, responded: ‘I’ve watched it again. It doesn’t sound like a joke.
‘For a start, no-one laughed. There was also a number of other reporters in the room. None of them suggested it might have been a joke.’
Ange Postecoglou’s side beat Man City 4-0 in the reverse fixture
Meanwhile, Guardiola is expecting an incredibly tough match against Spurs, who are somewhat of a bogey team for the current champions.
Ange Postecoglou’s side smashed City 4-0 when the two sides met in the reverse fixture at the Etihad in November, while Spurs also knocked Guardiola’s team out of this season’s Carabao Cup in the last 16.
Quizzed about Tottenham, Guardiola said: ‘A fantastic team, individual quality that they’ve always had, the rhythm they play with, the intensity, incredible runners in transition.
‘I have a high opinion about him (Postecoglou). I try to not judge results, you have to see the ideas; sometimes it’s going well, sometimes not much but I have a high, high opinion.’