Erling Haaland forced to apologise after fans spot error in happy birthday message to Man City colleague

Erling Haaland was forced to make a tongue-in-cheek apology to a Manchester City colleague after fans spotted his spelling mistake in a birthday message.

Haaland finally made a return to first-team training this week, having been out of action since suffering a stress injury to his foot in a 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa on December 6.

While he was not fit enough to be risked for the club’s 1-0 FA Cup victory over Tottenham on Friday night, the Norwegian has appeared in fine spirits on social media with his return to action appearing imminent.

Haaland has been undergoing rehab under the watchful eye of City physio Mario Pafundi, who joined the club in 2016 alongside Pep Guardiola.

Having helped him return to fitness, Haaland opted to wish Pafundi a happy birthday on Instagram. Sharing a snap of the smiling Italian, the City striker captioned it on his story with the words: “Happy birthday to the best fysio in the world.”

Naturally, several of the 23-year-old’s 38.1 million followers were quick to point out a spelling mistake in his message.

And rather than ignore the responses, Haaland posted another story correcting his mistake.

Sharing a stern-faced selfie of himself the City maskman said: “Oh we live in a perfect world everybody is perfect.

Haaland scored 52 goals for Man City last season (Getty)

“Sorry, I meant physio.”

Haaland is among the most prolific strikers in world football, having scored 52 goals last season in all competitions to fire City to a Champions League, FA Cup and Premier League treble.

That haul included a record 36 Premier League goals.

Haaland will be itching to add to his 19 goals this season, while the Premier League will be on red alert with Pep Guardiola’s side having also recently welcomed back Kevin De Bruyne from injury.