27 December 2023 , 22:54
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Pep Guardiola has provided an update on Erling Haaland's fitness, with the Manchester City star currently out of action with a foot injury.
Haaland has been out of action since City's 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa earlier this month with a bone stress reaction in his foot and Guardiola has now revealed the 23-year-old is yet to make a full return to training.
The forward did travel to Saudi Arabia last week as City won the Club World Cup, but trained on his own and missed his side's 3-1 win over Everton on Wednesday. And Guardiola has now ruled Haaland out of City's next game against Sheffield United on Saturday as well.
"Still he's not with the team," Guardiola told Amazon Prime when asked about Haaland's fitness. "He feels better with his bone but he hasn't made one training session with us. Unfortunately December is so congested with so many teams.
"January is so congested. Hopefully in January he can come back with us." Haaland is not the only key player City are currently missing, with Kevin de Bruyne also sidelined with a hamstring injury he picked up in the first game of the season against Burnley.
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De Bruyne has previously said he hopes to be back in action in January and he recently returned to training. "Last week he trained with us, today he had a little bit of fatigue because he's training hard," Guardiola added.
And following their Club World Cup triumph, City picked up a crucial three points in the Premier League title race with victory over Everton. After Jack Harrison put the Toffees 1-0 up in the first-half, City hit back with second-half strikes from Phil Foden Julian Alvarez and Bernardo Silva.
Erling Haaland is currently sidelined with a foot injury (Ryan Browne/REX/Shutterstock)The win leaves City fourth in the league table and five points behind leaders Liverpool with a game in hand and goalscorer Foden was full of praise for their performance. "I thought we played really well in the first half and it seems to have been the same story as previous games," he said.
"The manager just said to believe in ourselves at half-time because we're a top team. In the second half, wow. I think we blew them away with the way they played.
"I want to praise Everton because I think they've been doing really well recently and are a top side. They make it difficult. I'm really happy with the result. It's a difficult place to come."