Manchester City is expected to face Crystal Palace in the Premier League without Erling Haaland, who may also miss the Club World Cup. The treble-winning team, set to travel to Saudi Arabia next week, has injury concerns before the trip. Long-term absentee Kevin De Bruyne is joined on the physio table by Jeremy Doku (muscular) and Haaland (foot) this month. Jack Grealish picked up a knock, and while the severity is unknown, there is a chance the players will be unavailable against Palace.

Regarding Haaland’s injury, Pep Guardiola stated, “He arrived [on Friday] and the doctors will see him, and we will see how he feels. He had treatment away. Hopefully, he can travel to Saudi, and we will see if he is able to play in the first game or the second game or when we come back. I don’t think he will play [against Palace], but maybe he surprises me.”

He added, “It’s muscular, it’s not a big, big issue like Kevin was, for example, but we have to think about it as well because of his explosiveness. We have to be careful. I don’t know when he will be ready – maybe one week or two weeks – and then he will be ready again.”

As per the FPL website, Haaland has a 25% chance of playing against Palace and is currently flagged as red. Over 800,000 managers have transferred him out, and popular replacements include Ollie Watkins (£8.5 million), Dominic Solanke (£6.6 million), and Julian Alvarez (£6.9 million).