Erling Haaland expected to miss Crystal Palace match due to’stress’

Pep Guardiola expects Erling Haaland to miss Manchester City’s Premier League match against Crystal Palace on Saturday, and the Norwegian striker is a doubt for next week’s Club World Cup matches.

With a foot injury, City’s leading scorer, who has 19 goals this season, missed last weekend’s win at Luton and the midweek victory over Red Star Belgrade, and has been receiving treatment in Marbella.

Haaland returned to City on Friday morning, and Guardiola stated that he would be evaluated by club doctors before making any further decisions.

After Saturday’s match, City will travel to Saudi Arabia for the Club World Cup, where they will face Urawa Red Diamonds in the semi-finals on Tuesday. On Friday, either the final or the third-place play-off will take place.

“Haaland arrived today and the doctors will see him and we will see how he feels,” Guardiola said in a statement.

“He was receiving treatment. Hopefully, he will be able to travel to Saudi Arabia, and we will see if he is able to play in the first or second game, or when we return. I doubt he’ll play (against Palace), but he could surprise me.

“It’s not a fracture; it’s just stress.” Some players recover quickly, while others take longer. We can see how he feels day by day, week by week. He’ll play as soon as he’s not in pain.”

City’s come-from-behind win at Kenilworth Road last Sunday ended a run of four league games without a win, and any talk of a mini-crisis of form has vanished in the last week, with a young side earning a 3-2 win in Serbia thanks to debutant Micah Hamilton and 20-year-old Oscar Bobb goals.

Both players are already older than the more established Rico Lewis, who was part of the club’s treble-winning squad last season, pointing to more encouraging work being done by the club’s academy, which, in addition to producing first-team players, has also contributed to the balance sheet by selling several youngsters.

“For all the big clubs, the academy is an important part of many things,” said Pep Guardiola. “We only have to look at what has happened in the last five or six years with academy players.” They assist us or make a career away with a good transfer for the club to be financially sustainable.

“I understand how important it is for our fans and supporters to recognize young players like Rico, Phil (Foden), and Micah.” It’s incredible to be in the first team when you’re seven, eight, or nine years old.

“We continue to work on that and hopefully in future we can have more players like this.”

Palace have gone five Premier League games without a win, four of which have been defeats, but they did enjoy a famous win at the Etihad in October 2021 and have proven to be tenacious opponents on numerous occasions.

“It has always been a tough game,” Guardiola said. “They defend brilliantly, and with (Joachim) Anderson and the other guys, they don’t need much at set-pieces.” I can’t recall any easy games against Roy Hodgson’s teams. Patrick (Vieira) as well, but especially Roy.”

Guardiola laughed when asked if he could see himself still playing at Hodgson’s age of 76.

“I don’t think so, but you never know!” he exclaimed. “To still have the fire and passion inside, and the team is really good.”

“They played incredibly well against Liverpool, unfortunately they had a player sent off and with 10 against 11 against Liverpool it is almost impossible, but 11 against 11 I don’t know what would have happened.”