Man City have this week been boosted by the return of Erling Haaland to first-team training during their warm weather training camp in Abu Dhabi.
The striker this week admitted his boredom at being continuously sidelined due to a bone stress problem in his foot, telling the media at a recent awards ceremony, “I hope to be back really soon from injury, I’m getting bored of not playing.”
Earlier this month, Pep Guardiola confirmed a setback to Erling Haaland’s recovery process forcing the attacker to put his training ground activities with the Manchester City first-team on hold for a one-week period.
However, pointing towards the ongoing training camp in the middle-east, Pep Guardiola said at the time, “He’s fine… Restart maybe in Abu Dhabi and hopefully at the end of this month he’ll be ready.”
Now, after several weeks on the sidelines and brief setbacks during his recovery process, it can be confirmed that Erling Haaland has made a return to first-team training activities during their Abu Dhabi warm weather training camp.
It remains unknown just how ready Haaland will be by the time the club’s FA Cup fourth round tie away to Tottenham comes around, however the Norwegian’s first early steps into full training will come as a huge boost to Pep Guardiola’s plans.
The good news surrounding the Norway international superstar comes just 24 hours after it was reported and confirmed that John Stones had also made a return to first-team training following an ankle injury sustained against Everton last month.
Following the return of Stones and Haaland, Manuel Akanji remains the only player ruled out for Manchester City through injury, with no return date or update on the status of the Swiss defender after his problem sustained against Huddersfield.
A full gallery on the return of Erling Haaland can be found below: