Haaland out until January’s end, Guardiola confirms

• Erling Haaland has been sidelined due to an injury.
• Man City manager Gaurdiola confirmed the news.
• Akanji has also been injured.

Erling Haaland of Manchester City is expected to be sidelined until the end of January, according to manager Pep Guardiola.

Little information has been provided; however, Haaland, 23, has been sidelined since the Aston Villa loss on December 6 due to a foot ailment.

The leading scorer for City was expected to be back for the Club World Cup in December, but his injury hasn’t fully healed.

“It’s the bone. It needs time,” Guardiola said.

“With every injury you can do whatever you want but it’s a question of time.”

Haaland, a Norwegian international who has scored 19 goals in 22 club games this season, was already ruled out of City’s Premier League encounter against Newcastle on Saturday. Following the match, the team will take a 13-day break before traveling to Abu Dhabi for warm-weather training.

Should he miss the rest of the month, he will miss the FA Cup trip to Tottenham on January 26 and the league game against Burnley at home on January 31.

“It’s fine but the doctors decided to stop for one week and maybe restart in Abu Dhabi,” Guardiola said.

“Hopefully at the end of this month he’ll be ready. It was a little bit more than we expected in the beginning.”

Haaland has missed eight games for City, which includes their Club World Cup success. With one game remaining, City sits five points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool.

Guardiola, though, stated that his team “a lot” misses Haaland.

“We need him,” Guardiola said. “Hopefully he can come back and play the last four or five months without a problem.”

Manuel Akanji, the center back, is probably going to miss a comparable amount of time after being substituted in the eighteenth minute of last week’s FA Cup victory over Huddersfield.

“He will be some weeks out,” Guardiola said. “It’s not a big problem but until the end of the month.”

Also Read

Pep Guardiola showers praise on Erling Haaland for breaking another record

Erling Haaland scored two goals to lead the comeback for Manchester City....