Why Erling Haaland trained on his own away from Man City group in Abu Dhabi session

The attacker didn’t take part in the full training session with his Manchester City team-mates.
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Erling Haaland was seen training on his own during Manchester City’s latest video from Abu Dhabi.

Pep Guardiola’s side are currently enjoying a warm-weather camp in the Middle-East, and on Thursday the club posted a video from their latest training session. Haaland was spotted arriving with his team-mates but did not take part in the warm-up, passing drills or small-sided game that followed.

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The striker instead was filmed taking part in a light run away from the rest of the group. However, this decision was not due to injury with City keen to manage his return, much as they did in pre-season. Haaland suffered from a foot injury in the final weeks of the season prior to the World Cup, which limited him to just one start in the last five matches. The Norwegian has made a phenomenal start to life at the Etihad, netting 23 goals from his first 18 appearances in all competitions, and boasts a record of a goal every 60 minutes.

Haaland is one of just a handful of senior players in Abu Dhabi along with Riyad Mahrez, Sergio Gomez, Cole Palmer, Scott Carson, Stefan Ortega Moreno and Rico Lewis, all of whom were not involved in the World Cup. The rest of the squad is made up of Under-21 players, while Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan, who were eliminated early from the World Cup, will meet up with the squad next week in Manchester.

City will not play any matches in Abu Dhabi but will instead focus on building fitness ahead of the season recommencing on 22 December when they host Liverpool in the Carabao Cup. The Blues will play one warm-up match before then, when they face Girona on Saturday 17 December.

Club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak is also with the City squad at present and was seen chatting to Haaland, Mahrez and Guardiola at various stages during the training video.