While many of us were expecting to hear the latest on Erling Haaland (£14.8m) from Pep Guardiola in Tuesday’s pre-match press conference, Manchester City have gone early on an update.
The club put out a statement at 20:00 BST on Monday evening, saying the following:
“Manchester City FC can confirm that Erling Haaland has suffered an injury to his left ankle.
“The Norwegian striker sustained the injury during Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final victory away at AFC Bournemouth.
“Erling underwent initial tests in Manchester on Monday morning and will now seek specialist consultation to confirm the full extent of the injury.
“Assessment remains ongoing to ascertain a full prognosis. The expectation is that Erling will be fit in time to play a further part in the remainder of this season, including this summer’s FIFA Club World Cup.” – Manchester City club statement
It’s all a little vague but the line “will be fit in time to play a further part in the remainder of this season, including this summer’s FIFA Club World Cup” does make it sound like he could be sidelined for some weeks.
Double Gameweek 33 – if Manchester City are to get a ‘double’ then – is only 19 days away, so there has to be some serious doubt about whether he’s back for that.
Omar Marmoush (£7.4m) could be set to benefit from increased minutes, then, although we only need to look back at the FA Cup fifth-round win over Plymouth Argyle and the Gameweek 26 defeat to Liverpool to see Pep Guardiola opting for a different approach, namely Phil Foden (£9.2m) through the middle.
More to follow