Erling Haaland injury boost as Man City star returns to training ahead of Tottenham & Burnley games

Erling Haaland was spotted back in Manchester City training on Monday as he made a significant step in his recuperation from a foot injury.

The striker has missed the last nine games for City in all competitions and last featured for the Blues in the 1-0 loss to Aston Villa on 6 December. Haaland had been seen training in Saudi Arabia during the Club World Cup and it was hoped he would be available for games in the first half of January, but he missed those encounters against Huddersfield Town and Newcastle United.

Pep Guardiola revealed ahead of the latter that Haaland has suffered a setback in his recovery process.  “A little bit of disturbing problems in his feet,” the City boss explained on 12 January, before confirming he hoped the Norwegian would return to training during the club’s mid-season trip to Abu Dhabi.

“Hopefully at the end of this month he’ll be ready. It was a little bit more than we expected in the beginning. It’s a bone, it needs time. Every injury you can do whatever you want but it’s a question of time.”

The chances of Haaland featuring on Friday when City travel to Tottenham Hotspur were increased with images of the ex-Borussia Dortmund man back in training on Monday, although it’s unclear whether Haaland completed the full session.

John Stones also has also returned to training during the trip to the Middle East. The defender hasn’t played in nearly a month after sustaining an injury in City’s post-Christmas win over Everton.

Manuel Akanji is the only other fitness doubt for the champions. “Manu is injured. An action against Huddersfield, he will be some weeks out,” Guardiola explained ahead of the Newcastle game.

“It’s not a big problem but until the end of the month. I don’t know [if he’ll be back] against Spurs or Burnley. Now we’re lucky that we don’t have games in the next 10 days after Newcastle. We’ll see how they feel in the good weather.”