Will Erling Haaland play for Manchester City today against Nottingham Forest?
The Norwegian striker missed the win over Leeds with a mystery injury.
Manchester City are once again set to have an effect at both ends of the table as they take on their second relegation-threatened rival in as many games, with the visit of Nottingham Forest to the Etihad Stadium set for this evening.
However, like with the narrow win over Leeds at the weekend, Pep Guardiola has been sweating on the fitness of his main attacker, Erling Haaland, who did not make the XI against his boyhood club at Elland Road. In that game, Antoine Semenyo stood in his place, and scored the only goal in a 0-1 victory that went right to the wire.
“Two days ago, in the last moments of training, there were some problems‚” Gurdiola said before facing Farke’s side. “A little injury. It’s not a big issue, but not ready for today.”
Haaland “much better” ahead of Forest game
On Tuesday, ahead of the Forest game, Guardiola issued an update on the Norwegian’s fitness, saying that he felt “much better.”
“He feels much better, but yesterday we didn’t train and now we have training. We’ll decide today,” the City manager explained.
Another piece of bad news to come out of the game against Leeds was the injury to Nico O’Reilly, who limped off in the second half. It was later confirmed that an ankle issue had forced him off the crackling Elland Road pitch on Saturday. “The same, we will decide after training,” Guardiola said.
Two longer term recoveries are Joško Gvardiol and Mateo Kovačić, who will both remain out until at least May with more serious physical issues.
Manchester City are currently 5 points behind Arsenal at the top of the Premier League, but with a game in hand. Nottingham Forest are just 2 points ahead of West Ham, and two points behind Spurs.
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