Pep on Marmoush return after AFCON involvement | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola says Omar Marmoush is likely to miss this week’s UEFA Champions League clash with Bodo/Glimt.

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Marmoush has been away with Egypt at the African Cup of Nations where he bagged two goals as The Pharaohs finished fourth at the tournament in Morocco.

Egypt topped their group and beat Benin and Ivory Coast on their way to the semi-finals where they lost to Senegal before defeat on penalties to Nigeria in the third-place play-off.

That game took place on Saturday evening and with such a short turnaround, Marmoush is expected to be absent for our next UCL clash in Norway on Tuesday at 17:45 (UK).

But Guardiola is happy to have the 26-year-old back with the squad soon to offer support to fellow forward Erling Haaland, who the manager described as ‘exhausted’ in the aftermath of our Carabao Cup semi-final first leg victory over Newcastle United.

“No I don’t think so,” he said of Marmoush’s chances of making the UCL game.

“We need Erling and all of them. I don’t know if Omar comes and Erling is going to play. Erling is so important to us.

“We will see what happens next game. We have to travel to Norway right now, go there and we’ll see how they recover and I can smell how they feel and after that continue.

“We did it last season and we continue this one. We have players coming back soon and try to be there.

“The energy is connected one to the other one. The energy comes from the other one – you with me, you with me, you with me. It’s as simple as that.

“We are lucky we have Erling this season for what he has done. It’s important when you have games every three days, three days, three days to sustain it a lot.

“We have to live with it, deal with it and it makes us stronger. Our spirit that we had in the difficulties was incredible. We had it in Newcastle for many reasons, we responded and [against Manchester United] we were not able to do it.”

Marmoush joined City in January 2025 and his performances were instrumental in helping us to secure a third-place finish in the Premier League and qualification for this season’s Champions League.

He’s been unavailable for our last nine matches due to his AFCON adventure including our derby defeat at United but the manager said our loss at Old Trafford was not down to his extended absence.

“Omar is an exceptional player, his moments in behind are extraordinary but it would be so poor from me to say the reason why we didn’t get a result here or the previous ones is because Omar is not here,” Pep added.

“It’s not fair for him and it’s not fair for the team and all the guys that are here. We need to do it.”

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