Erling Haaland is still recovering from a groin injury and Pep Guardiola said a final decision on his fitness for this weekend will be made later on Friday.
Haaland had an amazing first season at Manchester City, scoring 42 goals in all competitions, more than any player in Europe’s top five leagues.
But his momentum was halted ahead of the international break with an injury that left the forward unable to play Norway.
City have an important game against Liverpool on Saturday and are hopeful that Haaland will return, although Guardiola was keen to take his time with the call.
“Erling is recovering,” the manager said. “We have the last practice and we will see how he feels.”
Guardiola, who added that Phil Foden would be out “two or three weeks” after having an appendix operation, was asked if he would risk Haaland if he wasn’t sure he was completely healthy.
The City boss was happy to trust the 22-year-old’s judgment, but he’s also confident his team can manage without their superstar striker.
Hunger than ever! #mansity pic.twitter.com/pmwRnC2hTC
— Erling Haaland (@ErlingHaaland) March 19, 2023
In the Premier League, Haaland has scored 28 goals, 42 per cent of City’s total goals this season, and has earned 20 points. All three are high marks for a City player in one season.
“The doctors and especially the players will decide,” Guardiola said. “How is he feeling? I spoke to him yesterday and he feels good. But we’ll see, we’ll see what happens.
“We have scored a lot of goals this season and he has scored an incredible number of goals, but we have also scored a lot of goals in the past.
“Ever since we’ve been here and with Roberto Mancini and (Manuel) Pellegrini, Man City have always been a team that has scored a lot of goals in a season – with different players, different strikers.
“They scored a lot of goals, which we will try to do before the end of the season.”
This season, City are second in the number of goals scored in Europe in all competitions, with 109 goals behind Bayern Munich (112). They are the only two teams to hit triple digits.
