Erling Haaland has emerged as an early doubt for Manchester City’s trip to face Burnley at the weekend after he picked up a knock against Arsenal.
Haaland has made an impressive start to the season, and continued in that vein when he notched up his sixth league goal after just nine minutes at the Emirates last Sunday.
However, the Norwegian striker was brought off in the 76th minute and watched from the stands as his side conceded a late equaliser to draw 1-1 with Arsenal.
It later emerged that the 25-year-old was dealing with pain in his back, but Guardiola is hopeful that his star striker can make a full recovery in time for the visit of Burnley in the league on Saturday.
‘Recovery yesterday, didn’t train. Training today, I didn’t see him (Haaland) and the rest of the players yet. But hopefully he can be (ready) for next weekend (against Burnley),’ Guardiola told a press conference on Tuesday.
Get personalised updates on Manchester City every day
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.
‘It’s been such a demanding week and the last game especially and sometimes the players have problems. But I think we’ll be fine next weekend, I hope so.’
Haaland is expected to play no part in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup clash with Huddersfield Town, with Guardiola suggesting he will heavily rotate his squad to manage several players’ fitness.
‘Tomorrow I’m not going to play the same starting 11 as the last three games. That’s for sure,’ he added.
‘I said many times we respect this competition, otherwise we don’t win it four times in a row.
‘(We want to) arrive in this competition with no injuries but unfortunately we have injuries so it will be a mix of the first team and academy players to play tomorrow because the priority is Burnley, Monaco and Brentford.
‘Players like Rayan Cherki, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Omar Marmoush, many players, they are not able to play because they are injured.
‘It is what it is. We will try to compete and go through.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
