Why Phil Foden and Ruben Dias are missing for Man City vs Nottingham Forest amid Erling Haaland boost

Erling Haaland is back in the Manchester City squad to hand the Blues a considerable boost for their last five fixtures of the Premier League title run-in - but Phil Foden and Ruben Dias have given them two new concerns.

Haaland has missed City's last two games with a muscle injury that Pep Guardiola has played down. After Thursday's trip to Brighton, Guardiola said Haaland 'felt better', and he was later pictured in training on Friday. Now, he is back in the City squad to take on Nottingham Forest on Sunday, albeit the striker was only named among the substitues.

City were bidding to keep within range of Arsenal at the top of the table, who were in action in the North London derby directly before the Blues faced Forest. Liverpool drew on Saturday to remain a point behind City, who have two games in hand. City will still have a game in hand over Arsenal after Sunday's fixtures - which will be at Tottenham in the penultimate game of the campaign.

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Guardiola confirmed Haaland was not ready to face Brighton three days ago, but sounded optimistic over the Norwegian's return date. When asked about statistics that show City actually have a better points-per-game record without Haaland playing, Guardiola replied: "I prefer to have Erling at my disposal than not to have it."

Haaland had been back in training and was back in the squad to arrive at the City Ground, but there was no sign of Foden or Dias in the 20-man group. Foden came off towards the end of a brilliant performance at Brighton. Dias had been an unused substitute at the Amex Stadium after starting against both Real Madrid and Chelsea in the previous week. MEN Sport understands both are ill, preventing them from being included at Forest.

On Foden, Guardiola, speaking to TV before the Forest game, said: "He is not ready. He is ill. He didn’t feel good, discomfort today and he is back to Manchester. It is what it is. It is a long season, they always happen these kind of things."