SOCCER
Erling Haaland not expected to return to action until 2022
"He is doing relatively well in his recovery, given the circumstances, but he will be out of the game for a while."
Erling Haaland watched from the box at Signal Iduna Park as Ajax once again beat Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League this week. The Bundesliga side's chances of reaching the next round of the Champions League are getting slimmer. In the first encounter between the teams this season, Haaland picked up an injury that could see him ruled out until next year. Dortmund announced in early October that he would be out for a few weeks, however it now looks like it will be much longer than that.
Ajax game could be last in 2021
According to leaks to the German press there seemed to be hope that he would return in early December to play against rivals Bayern Munich in a crucial Bundesliga clash on 4 December. Former player Jan Aage Fjörtoft - a close friend of the Haaland family - explained that "the game against Ajax may have been Haaland's last for the rest of the year". Borussia Dortmund have stayed quiet on the issue, and have yet to release an update on his expected recovery, and it was his father, Alf-Inge, who broke the bad news about the striker's hip flexor tear.
"It would be nice if he could play some games before Christmas, but that is very unlikely. He is doing relatively well in his recovery, given the circumstances, but he will be out of the game for a while. We will have to see day by day how he evolves," the former Manchester City player told Norwegian channel TV 2, as quoted in De Telegraaf.
Haaland Sr happy at Dortmund
The young striker was seen in a relaxed mood on Wednesday, despite news that the injury is worse than initially expected. He watched the match with Magnus Carlssen, the chess master who, incidentally, is an avid Real Madrid fan, and the two posed together on the side of the pitch. Before getting injured, Haaland had scored 13 goals in 10 games. As for his future, his father still leaves it up in the air. "We'll see. You look back here, what a great stadium this is. There is 67,000 here today, normally 82,000. This is a fantastic club," he said.