Erling Haaland has handed a Manchester City a major injury boost after he returned to training on Wednesday.
The Premier League’s top goalscorer this season suffered a minor groin injury ahead of Norway’s Euro 2024 qualifiers against Spain and Georgia and pulled out of Stolle Solbakken’s squad.
He missed City training last week, and was unavailable for the Premier League win over Liverpool, with Pep Guardiola saying he felt better but wasn’t fit enough to play in the 4-1 win at the Etihad.
Guardiola sounded optimistic that Haaland was nearing a return when speaking after the Liverpool win, and gave his players three days off to prepare for the trip to Southampton and following Champions League clash with Bayern Munich next week.
Now, City have published photos from their first training session back, with Haaland part of the group that began preparations for the journey to St Mary’s.
.@ErlingHaaland is back! 👀 pic.twitter.com/BrRDMtB7fC
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 5, 2023
Guardiola as well as Man City fans will no doubt be relieved to see the 22-year-old back in contention to feature on Saturday against Southampton when the champions will have the chance to reduce the gap to leaders Arsenal to five points ahead of their trip to Anfield on Sunday.
The Gunners haven’t won in the red half of Merseyside for 11 years, when Mikel Arteta was still playing in their midfield.
After Southampton, City face Bayern Munich at home in the Champions League quarter-final first leg, before taking on Leicester at the Etihad next weekend.
Then follows the return leg at the Allianz Arena against Bayern, and City return to England to face Sheffield United in the FA Cup semi-final. Four days later, they welcome Arsenal in a Premier League title race showdown.
