“He’s injured…” – Pep Guardiola confirms one big Man City absentee for Liverpool showdown | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has shared injury updates on his Manchester City squad for Liverpool’s visit to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

The Reds will be without Conor Bradley, Joe Gomez and Tyler Morton for the match, with Arne Slot waiting to see if Cody Gakpo will be fit enough to feature at the weekend.

The man in the home dugout is also sweating on the fitness of a prolific forward, with Erling Haaland not making it off the bench in the midweek Champions League defeat to Real Madrid after the suspected knee issue he picked up in last weekend’s win over Newcastle.

Guardiola shares Man City injury updates

Guardiola was rather coy when asked about the Norwegian in his press conference today, with Liverpool kept guessing as to whether or not the 24-year-old will feature on Sunday.

The Man City boss said of his number 9 (via Evening Standard): “I don’t know yet. Tomorrow we will know it. Maybe, but I don’t know yet. He will train tomorrow and tomorrow we will test. It’s better to have Erling on the pitch obviously… of course with Erling we are stronger.”

Haaland might yet recover in time to face the Reds, but one man who definitely won’t be involved is John Stones, who was forced off in the opening minutes at the Bernabeu on Wednesday and is now set for an extended spell on the sidelines.

Speaking about the ex-Everton defender, Guardiola said: “He’s injured, a difficult one. In the next hours, days we’ll know if he needs surgery or not.”

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

City could still be dangerous even without Haaland

Much of the focus will inevitably be trained on whether or not Haaland makes it in time for Sunday’s match, and he’d obviously be a huge miss for City if he doesn’t feature against Liverpool. Who wouldn’t be weakened by the absence of a player who’s scored 117 times in less than three full seasons?

If he isn’t involved at the weekend, it shouldn’t be a cause of celebration for the Reds – Omar Marmoush (with whom we we were strongly linked before he joined the Sky Blues last month) dispatched Newcastle with a first-half hat-trick last weekend, so he obviously poses a significant threat as well.

Irrespective of who starts up front for City, the visitors will need to be far more clued-in defensively than they have been in recent games, with five goals conceded in their last three Premier League outings, including two against Aston Villa which were most preventable.

Conversely, Liverpool might view Sunday’s match as an ideal opportunity to capitalise on a weakened defence shorn of Manuel Akanji and now Stones. Mo Salah will no doubt fancy his chances of extending his formidable record against Guardiola’s side, which currently stands at 12 goals in 21 meetings as an LFC player.

We imagine that Reds fans would rather not have to worry about facing Haaland this weekend, but with the two clubs now unable to meet in any other competition this season thereafter, we wish him and the England defender as swift a recovery as possible from their respective injury issues.