After recovering from a groin injury, Erling Haaland might be available for Manchester City’s Premier League trip to Southampton.
Haaland sustained the injury against Burnley last month, missing Norway’s international matches as a result. Pep Guardiola claimed that although he felt better and was fit enough to play in the 4-1 victory at the Etihad, he missed City’s training session last week and was absent for the Premier League victory over Liverpool.
After Liverpool’s victory, Guardiola expressed confidence that Haaland was getting closer to a return and gave his players three days off to rest up for the trip to Southampton and the subsequent Champions League match with Bayern Munich the following week.
Haaland was a member of the group that started making plans to travel to Saint Mary’s, according to images from City’s first practice after the break.
Haaland was upbeat in a brief video that City posted of Wednesday’s practice. He had spent Tuesday in London for a Nike event after being chosen as the face of the sportswear company’s most recent advertising campaign.
Following Southampton, City’s first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal match against Bayern will be played at home before the following weekend’s match against Leicester. The second leg against Bayern will then take place at the Allianz Arena, after which City will go back to England to play Sheffield United in the FA Cup semifinal. In a matchup for the Premier League championship four days later, they welcome Arsenal.
He is improving, according to Guardiola following Liverpool’s victory. He felt a little bit better [on Friday] than he had the prior two days. Hopefully, the trip to Southampton in seven days will still be helpful.
Guardiola justified the time off he gave his team by saying that they needed to recover. “I was on vacation in my hometown of Catalonia [during the international break] but they were in the national team and after that if you continue Champions League or FA Cup you have a lot of games, so stay away and then three days to prepare Southampton, Bayern Munich, Leicester, Sheffield United, Arsenal.”