Pep Guardiola has refused to rule out Erling Haaland for Manchester City's clash against Liverpool tomorrow afternoon.
The prolific forward, who has scored a staggering 42 goals in all competitions since sealing his summer switch to City, has failed to recover from a groin issue sustained in an FA Cup quarter-final win over Burnley on March 18 and missed both of Norway's recent European Championship qualifiers.
Haaland was absent from first-team training on Thursday afternoon, but Guardiola is yet to make a final decision on whether the Premier League's leading scorer will feature against the Reds.
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Speaking at his pre-match press conference, the Catalan coach said: "Erling is recovering, tomorrow we have the last training session and we will see how he feels. We see today, at the end the doctors and the player will decide how he feels. I spoke with him, he feels good. We will see. Life is risk in these stages, we have to take it.
"We score a lot of goals, he scores an incredible amount of goals," added the 52-year-old when pushed further on the potential absence of his talisman. "In the past we score a lot of goals. I have a feeling City under Mancini and Pellegrini were always a team who scored a lot with different players. This is what we do until the end of the season."
While there is still hope Haaland may feature, the reigning Premier League champions will be without Phil Foden. The midfielder was withdrawn from England's international squad on Sunday after undergoing surgery for acute appendicitis and is now set for a spell on the sidelines as his side go toe-to-toe with Arsenal for top spot.
"Phil had the surgery," Guardiola said when asked for an update on the 22-year-old.. "The doctors tell me two or three weeks."
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