Arsenal will watch on amid fears that Erling Haaland could miss Manchester City's Premier League clash with Liverpool this weekend. The striker withdrew from Norway's squad for their international fixtures with Spain and Georgia after sustaining an injury in the FA Cup win over Burnley.
Haaland has scored an astonishing 42 goals in all competitions for Pep Guardiola's side this season. He leads the goalscoring table across Europe and has single-handedly kept City in the title race on some occasions.
City's first game back from the international break sees Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool visit the Etihad Stadium. Failure to win could see the champions fall 11 points behind Arsenal should they beat Leeds.
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After scoring eight goals in his previous two games for City, Haaland was forced to pull out of his nation's European Championship Qualifying opening fixtures. The decision hints that he could possibly miss a number of league fixtures upon the return of action.
Arsenal supporters will be looking out for the prospect of City being without their talisman for the final two months of the season. With that being said, football.london brings you everything we know on the striker's injury.
'Touch and go'
After confirming that Haaland had visited Barcelona for treatment, Alfie Haaland provided a hint over the possibility of his son featuring against Liverpool at the weekend.
He said: "Firstly, I'm not a doctor and secondly, I think it's 'touch and go' [to face Liverpool], yes. You can’t just go two weeks without training and then jump right into a fight. There must be a progression there.
"They can gamble on it, but if he doesn’t get proper training with the team, then he won’t play. It is about how he responds to treatment in the next few days. He needs a lot of care and 'knuckling'. There are many sprints and there is a lot to move.
“It was very surprising. I knew nothing. He called me and said that they had taken some pictures and found something that was not good. He would very much like to have played these two international matches. But he must prioritise his health, try to get his body back in place. Based on the assumptions, he is doing well, but he is very sad.”
Barcelona visit
Haaland visited City's partner hospital in Barcelona at the end of last week to undergo further tests on his groin injury. His dad, Alfie, confirmed the striker's visit to Spain when speaking to Norwegian TV.
"Manchester City has a partnership with a hospital in Barcelona so he has been there for further checks and treatment," he told TV2. “Now he has been here [Marbella] for a couple of days with the physio from the club.
The games he could miss
City have 11 league games remaining and at least another three added due to their participation in the Champions League and FA Cup. Should Haaland's injury be more serious as anticipated, the striker could miss a number of key games.
Here are the games Guardiola may be without Haaland: Liverpool (H), Southampton (A), Bayern Munich (H), Leicester City (H), Bayern Munich (A), Sheffield United (H), Arsenal (H) and Fulham (A).
Haaland previous injury record
After being forced to miss over 140 days of action for Dortmund due to his injury, Haaland has yet to be ruled out for an extended period at City.
Since joining in the summer, the forward has only missed two matches this season.
Man City's injury stance
Despite the injury keeping Haaland out of action for his nation over the next week, Guardiola's side do not believe the injury to be serious, according to our sister-title the Manchester Evening News.
The outlet reports that the player would not have joined up with Stale Solbakken's side in the first place if the injury had been considerably bothered by it.
Doctor provides diagnoses
Following the news that the goal-machine had withdrawn from the Norwegian side, team doctor Ola Sand provided an update on the striker's injury.
"After doing tests and examinations yesterday it became clear that he will not make it for the games against Spain and Georgia," he said. "It is better that he receives medical follow-up at his club."
Norway withdrawal
Haaland pulled out of the Norway squad through injury last Tuesday. The 22-year-old picked up a groin problem in the FA Cup thrashing of Burnley - in which he scored a hat-trick against Burnley.
Norway head coach Solbakken said: "Erling took it hard when he realised that he could not fight for the team.
"Fortunately there is still plenty of self-confidence, talent and cohesion in this group to win points in the next matches."
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