Man City sent Erling Haaland injury timeline warning as Pep Guardiola faces huge decision

Injury analyst Ben Dinnery has suggested it would be "sensible" for Manchester City to manage Erling Haaland's return to fitness for the remainder of the 2023/24 season.

The striker missed Saturday's FA Cup semi-final win over Chelsea with a fitness issue picked up in the Champions League exit to Real Madrid. It's understood that it's not a serious issue but he will miss Thursday night's Premier League trip to Brighton.

"Erling is not ready for tomorrow. The other two [Phil Foden and John Stones] are ready," Pep Guardiola said on Wednesday. "It's not a big issue but he's not available."

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It remains to be seen whether Haaland will be available for Sunday's trip to Nottingham Forest. City will have five league games left in their title race following tonight's game with Brighton and Guardiola will be hoping to have his prolific goalscorer back sooner rather than later.

However, Dinnery has suggested that it may be worth holding Haaland's return back rather than rushing him and suffering another problem. Speaking to MEN Sport, on behalf of Crypto Casino, he said: "It's a risk and reward. I heard Pep talk about the injury crisis and the demands. I find it difficult to have any sympathy for them when they could field two starting 11s which could compete in the Premier League.

"Man City are in a fortunate position where they can look at the likes of Kevin De Bryune and Erling Haaland's of this world and you can make that decision with no need to risk them unnecessarily. Yeah they’ve got big games coming up and yeah they may have to go the rest of the season unbeaten, but you can put De Bruyne, [Phil] Foden and [Julian] Alvarez play there.

"In that situation, it’s an opportunity for Guardiola to take no risks. With any soft tissue injuries, if we’re talking about a 50/50 player and slightly doubtful, is it worth holding him back for 7-10 days or risking them to suffer a significant tear/strain that could end his season and impact the end of the season?

"You could quite easily turn a 7-10 day injury into a four-six week problem. That's not just impacting the player heading into the new campaign but it may inhibit his summer with him having to come into the club for rehab.

"That's the judgement call that you need to make and the sensible decision here is to not push too hard when they've got so many important games to come. It's sensible to manage Haaland at this moment."