Haaland among Man City trio to miss Club World Cup final due to semi-final rule

19 December 2023 , 18:25

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Haaland among Man City trio to miss Club World Cup final due to semi-final rule

Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku will play no part in Manchester City's bid to win the Club World Cup.

All three players were left out of Pep Guardiola's 23-man squad to face Urawa Red Diamonds in the semi-final - and tournament regulations mean the same players must also report for duty regardless of whether the Premier League finals go through to face Fluminense in the final or Al Ahly in the third-place play-off on Friday.

‌Haaland, De Bruyne and Doku arrived in Saudi Arabia carrying injuries. Haaland missed the win at Luton and the draw with Crystal Palace after being diagnosed with a stress issue in his foot.

‌De Bruyne trained on Monday afternoon with City’s squad but has been sidelined since August after undergoing surgery to fix a ruptured hamstring. Doku, the flying Belgian winger who has been in excellent form since his summer arrival from Rennes, has also missed City’s last two games with a muscle problem sustained against Tottenham.

‌City are hoping all three will return to action to help them rebuild their title challenge in the New Year. Last season’s Treble winners have won just one of their last six games and are down to fourth in the table.

Guardiola makes 'body language' admission after Man City slip behind Arsenal

Bernardo Silva though has cautioned the team's doubters against ruling them out of securing a fourth successive Premier League success when they return to English soil, by which point they may have lost further ground at the top.

Erling Haaland won't play for Man City at the Club World Cup

The playmaker said: “Do you doubt us? We’ll see what happens in May. Let’s see where we are then. I’m not going to say we are going to do it. But apart from my third season, when Liverpool won comfortably, we have won five in six titles. So no one can say this team isn’t capable of going on a good run. We can do it and we’re going to work on that. We have shown before that this team is capable of winning games and going on a run.”

Guardiola has previously won the Club World Cup as a manager, doing so in 2009 and 2011 when he was in charge of Barcelona. He then won it for a third time when he took over at Bayern Munich and believes success with City would cap their sensational season.

Simon Mullock