Will Erling Haaland play vs Liverpool? Injury latest on Man City striker ahead of huge clash

Manchester City take on Liverpool in their upcoming Premier League clash. Pep Guardiola welcome the table toppers to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The hosts head into the game on the back of their 3-1 loss away at Real Madrid in the Champions League last time out. They were beaten 6-3 by the La Liga giants on aggregate and are now out of the competition.

It has been a tough season so far for City and they haven’t been able to perform to the level that their supporters have been used to over recent times. They will be hoping for some more consistency over the coming weeks and months.

Erling Haaland injury update

City striker Erling Haaland remains a doubt for their match against Liverpool. The Norway international sustained a knee injury last weekend against Newcastle. He will now be assessed over the next day or so to assess whether he is fit. When asked whether he will play a part against the Reds, Guardiola has said: “I don’t know yet. Tomorrow will know it, I don’t know yet.”

On whether he is hopeful he can feature, his boss: “Yeah, maybe but I don’t know yet. We train today, until tomorrow he will test but I don’t know.

“It is better to have Erling on the pitch than not have him, obviously. But with Erling we are in the position that we are right now. Everybody is responsible for good and bad things in the team. But of course, with Erling we are stronger.”

John Stones is set for a spell on the sidelines and his manager has said: “He’s injured, a difficult one. Next hours, days we’ll know if he needs surgery or not. Yeah [he faces a long period out], like Manu Akanji.”

Guardiola is understandably coy on Haaland’s chances of playing against Liverpool and won’t want to give anything away. He will want to keep Arne Slot guessing. Haaland has scored 27 goals in all competitions in this campaign and it would be a blow if he wasn’t able to play. Even when City are playing badly, he is always capable of coming up with moment of magic up top.

Manchester City’s upcoming clash

City will want to return to winning ways against Liverpool after losing to Real Madrid. They won 4-0 at home to Newcastle United in their last league outing.

Guardiola has said: “We are in a not bad moment. Apart from Madrid, who were the better team and are a better team right now. I had the feeling in recent years in the Champions League we can compete with any team. Always we were there.

“In previous seasons against that team - we feel it, they feel it - we were there and, in many aspects, better than them. This time we couldn’t go through and we accept the reality. Look at the situations now with two central defenders out for two months. This period in the Premier League is now massively important for us.

“In the Premier League we have done good, good games. Even when we lost 5-1 against Arsenal but we played very well for 60 minutes. The rest we were not stable.”