Erling Haaland & Jack Grealish among 10 first-team players back for Man City pre-season training

Ten first-team players reported back for Manchester City’s first day of pre-season training.

With 15 members of Pep Guardiola’s squad involved in either Euro 2024 or the Copa America, numbers were always set to be diminished as the players returned.

Among the 10 returning stars was Erling Haaland, who is about to embark on his third season at the Etihad. The striker should feel refreshed after enjoying a summer off as Norway missed out on Euro 2024.

Jack Grealish was also at City’s training base on Monday, although he has already been back this summer to maintain his fitness levels ahead of the 2024/25 campaign. Fresh from the disappointment of missing out on England’s Euro 2024 squad, the winger will hope he can hit the ground running and secure his place in Guardiola’s side for the opening weeks of the new season.

Rico Lewis and Kalvin Phillips also missed out on Gareth Southgate’s squad for Euro 2024 and trained with City on Monday. The latter spent the second half of last season on loan at West Ham United and, while it’s unlikely he’ll be part of Guardiola’s squad this term, is expected to head to the USA as part of the club’s summer tour.

Ederson’s future is also uncertain amid interest from Saudi Arabia, but the Brazilian returned on the first day of pre-season. He was among three goalkeepers who trained, along with Stefan Ortega and Scott Carson.

Elsewhere, Maximo Perrone, James McAtee and Oscar Bobb made up the 10 first-team stars who reported back to training, although youngsters Callum Doyle, Jacob Wright, Mahamadou Susoho and Nico O’Reilly were also pictured on the club’s website.

They’re all expected to fly out to America later this week ahead of friendlies against Celtic, AC Milan, Barcelona and Chelsea. City return to competitive action on 10 August when they face Manchester United in the Community Shield.

Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic, who were eliminated early from Euro 2024 with Croatia, will join up with the squad in the USA, but the remaining 13 City players involved in international tournaments this summer won’t return until the week commencing 5 August at the earliest.