Injured Erling Haaland Might "Hopefully Return" In January Says Manchester City Boss Pep Guardiola

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has given an update on Erling Haaland’s possible return date saying that he hopes the striker will be back in the new year.

Haaland has been out of action since injuring his foot a few weeks ago and didn’t feature in Manchester City’s success at the FIFA Club World Cup.

“Still he’s not with the team. He feels better but he hasn’t made one training session with us. Hopefully, in January he can come back with us,” Guardiola told Amazon Prime.

That means Haaland is likely to miss this weekend’s match against Sheffield United and possibly their FA Cup third-round tie with Huddersfield Town on January 7 as well as their encounter with Newcastle United on January 13, Premier League reported.

Guardiola also spoke about Kevin De Bruyne, who is nearing a return to action having been injured a hamstring on the opening weekend of the season.

“Last week he trained with us, today he had a little bit of fatigue because he’s training hard,” Guardiola added.

City sit in fourth in the league, after their 3-1 win against Everton on Wednesday evening and are five points adrift of leaders Liverpool, but the champions do have a match in hand.

City came into the match against Everton on a high after winning the Club World Cup last week in Saudi Arabia– their fifth trophy during an extraordinary 2023.

But they have not had their own way in the Premier League in recent weeks.

Pep Guardiola’s men, chasing an unprecedented fourth consecutive English top-flight title, were in trouble when trailing 1-0 at Goodison Park, courtesy of a first-half strike from former City player Jack Harrison.

But Phil Foden fizzed a shot past Jordan Pickford in the 53rd minute and Julian Alvarez put the visitors ahead from the penalty spot.

Bernardo Silva capped a brilliant second-half performance for the champions, taking advantage of an error from Pickford in the closing minutes.

City, who had won just one of their previous six league games, are now back in fourth spot with a game in hand over Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, who have 42 points.