Extent of Erling Haaland injury revealed after Pep Guardiola confirms major blow | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has revealed concerns surrounding the fitness of striker Erling Haaland following Tuesday’s pre-season clash against FC Barcelona.

The Sky Blues extended their winless pre-season streak at the Camping World Stadium in midweek, stumbling to a penalty shoot-out defeat against Barcelona in their third friendly of a four-match tour.

Manchester City lost 4-1 on penalties to the La Liga heavyweights, with Pep Guardiola’s side having initially equalised twice to draw 2-2 with Barcelona in Orlando, with goals from teenager Nico O’Reilly and senior star Jack Grealish.

O’Reilly equalised for Manchester City in the 39th minute, less than 15 minutes after Pau Victor rolled Barcelona into a 24th minute lead. Although Erling Haaland thought that he had broken the deadlock early into the clash, only for the officials to adjudge that the ball hadn’t crossed the line.

Barcelona retook the lead just before half-time through Pablo Torre, with Grealish cancelling out the late first-half strike in the 60th minute with an emphatic strike.

Kalvin Phillips and Jacob Wright both missed penalties during the shoot-out at the Camping World Stadium, however Manchester City’s biggest concern will be the fitness of Haaland, who couldn’t feature during the second-half due to a problem.

Guardiola’s side conclude their pre-season tour against Chelsea in Ohio this weekend, prior to starting their domestic campaign against Manchester United at Wembley Stadium in the FA Community Shield.

Manchester City are then scheduled to begin their Premier League title defence against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in mid-August, followed by matches against Ipswich Town and West Ham.

Haaland’s withdrawal from Tuesday’s pre-season friendly was due to ‘niggles’ revealed Guardiola, with Manchester City also set to be without Julian Alvarez for the opening weeks of the season.

“Erling is not comfortable,” Guardiola said during his post-match conversations with reporters. “We don’t want to take risks. But sooner or later he has to take a step with training and minutes.”

The Manchester City manager continued, “The season is there, around the corner. He has niggles, muscular, we don’t want to take a risk and lose him for three weeks or a month. That would be a problem.”

“He didn’t feel good and that’s why he didn’t play the second half,” Pep Guardiola continued on the subject of his first-choice striker.

“60, 70 per cent of the squad are on holiday. That’s why we need the players. At the same time, we have alternatives, Oscar (Bobb) makes an incredible job again. We’re pleased with many things.”

Erling Haaland missed the FIFA Club World Cup campaign due to injury last season, but had started Manchester City’s first two pre-season friendlies against both Celtic and AC Milan, scoring in both fixtures.