Erling Haaland ruled out for Manchester City as Pep Guardiola issues injury update

Pep Guardiola remained hopeful Erling Haaland will be fit enough to travel with the Manchester City squad to the Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia.

Haaland has missed City’s last two matches with what the manager described as a “bone stress reaction” in his foot, and is expected to be managed on a weekly basis.

However, the Norway international is not expected to feature against Crystal Palace on Saturday 16 December.

The club are then due to depart for Saudi Arabia, and will play in the Club World Cup semi-final on Tuesday 19 December.

"Hopefully he can travel to Saudi [for the Club World Cup], whether he can play the first game or the second, I don’t know,” Guardiola said.

"I’m not worried. It is just stress. Day by day, week by week, we have to see how he is."

Haaland returned from treatment on Friday and will be assessed by the club doctors, although Guardiola insisted the injury was not a fracture, just “stress”.

Should the striker not be fit enough to travel, his next match could be after Christmas, when City travel to Everton on Wednesday 27 December.

Moving on from the discussions over their talisman striker, Guardiola praised England international Jack Grealish as a “typical number 10” and praised his versatility.

When asked if the former Aston Villa man could play in another position, the City boss said: “We don’t have time to work. Yesterday was recovery, today is pre-match.

“We don’t have time to understand (new positions) without training sessions. Sometimes in 10-15 minutes we can do it, Jack can understand immediately.

“He can play in different positions, in the middle. He’s a typical number 10.”

Matches against Crystal Palace have not been the most straightforward for the defending champions in recent years, they were beaten 2-0 at home by the Eagles back in 2021-22, while also being held to a draw at Selhurst Park that same year.

However, City have won four of their last six matches against Palace, stretching back to the 2020-21 season.