Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted that he may be forced to risk striker Erling Haaland for Saturday's home Premier League clash against Liverpool, despite concerns regarding the Norwegian's fitness.
The 22-year-old withdrew from Norway's squad over the international break having suffered a groin injury in City's last game - a 6-0 victory over Burnley in the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Prior to sustaining the injury, Haaland had netted his sixth hat-trick of the season against the Clarets. This also saw the striker's goal tally for the season reach 42, emphasising why Guardiola is prepared to gamble on the forward's fitness.
"Life is risks and sometimes you have to take it," the Manchester City boss told the media on Friday ahead of Saturday lunchtime's tasty clash. "The doctors and, especially, the player will see how he feels.
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"We have scored a lot of goals this season and he has scored an incredible amount of goals. But we've always scored a lot of goals since we've been here."
City will have the opportunity to close the gap between themselves and leaders Arsenal to five points should they beat Jurgen Klopp's side at the Etihad in the latest instalment of what has recently become a classic Premier League fixture.
However, unlike in other seasons, Liverpool aren't battling City to the Premier League title with the Merseyside outfit currently sixth and seven points off of the top four.
The Reds did, however, win the reverse fixture at Anfield 1-0 back in October but have since struggled for any sort of consistency in the top flight and thus may struggle to qualify for the Champions League next season.
As for Manchester City, with 11 league matches to go alongside a Champions League quarter-final tie against Bayern Munich and an FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield United, it is very much all still to play for.
Topics: Erling Haaland, Pep Guardiola, Manchester City, Liverpool, Premier League, Injury
Dan Hargraves