Haaland Still Has Liverpool Hopes Despite International City Return

Many in the wider world of football wondered how Norwegian international hotshot, Erling Haaland, would adjust to life in the English Premier League as he swapped life in Germany and Borussia Dortmund for Pep Guardiola's Manchester City side.

Everyone knew the 22 year old would ultimately prove to be a success based on the form he had shown earlier on in his career, but there were good questions raised when it came to how quickly he would settle, and then how he would adapt to the more physical nature of the English top flight given the injury issues he did suffer in the Bundesliga, but to date, he has only missed three games for City after he picked up a small foot problem in the Champions League back in October.

It has now been confirmed however, that he has withdrawn from the Norway squad for their current international break clashes after picking up a groin issue in our last clash (6-0 victory) over Burnley. With a lack of domestic action right now, there will be those City fans who while away some time on the likes of https://www.slotozilla.com/uk/online-casinos/live. Having undertaken further tests having travelled to meet up with the squad, the decision was taken to send him home purely as a precautionary measure to ensure that whatever was causing the discomfort he had original complained about, was not further exacerbated, as Norwegian gaffer Stale Solbakken is on record as saying Haaland was now 'deeply frustrated' as he felt the injury had now become slightly more problematic, at least in the short term.

Looking further down the line, it is reported that City do not believe it to be a significant issue and based on their investigations, they trust that rest will be enough to solve the issue and that he will now be ready to face Liverpool when domestic football returns.

City fans will be buoyed by the simple fact that even if it is not yet guaranteed that Haaland will be back in contention for the game with Jurgen Klopp's side, whatever the issue ultimately proves to be, the club have not yet been forced to categorically rule him out of the game either.

If fans can then read further into the noises coming out of City, the prospects sound good.

Only last week, Nathan Ake was talking about Haaland's commitment to training and improving, which has seen him become one of the first to arrive at the training ground, and one of the last to leave as he works on his fitness and recovery, and far more recently Rodri has been in the media discussing how his team mate has another recovery focus - regular massages.

Rodri was, of course, set to face off against Haaland with Spain and Norway in Group A European Championship Qualifying action next weekend, but just ahead of confirmation of his withdrawal came in, as the 26 year old spoke to Spanish media during the build up to the game, he said of his colleagues training routine.

“Haaland is made of different stuff, he is a rock, a Viking. Haaland takes good care of himself, he’s with the masseur all day. Hopefully his injury is nothing, but let’s hope he leaves us alone."

Having got his wish for Haaland to leave them alone, he will be hoping that the 'injury is nothing' part also proves to be true given his phenomenal scoring rate so far in the 2022/23 campaign.