Pep Guardiola provides Erling Haaland injury update with Man City ‘exhausted physically and mentally’ | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has put Erling Haaland’s involvement in Manchester City’s FA Cup tie with Salford in doubt after revealing that the Norwegian is “not 100 percent”.

Haaland was brought off at half-time of midweek’s Premier League win over Fulham, in which he scored his first goal in open play since Christmas, with Guardiola explaining his withdrawal by saying he’d felt “niggles”.

The Catalan coach speculated that it was just fatigue but it appears the striker now finds himself in a race against time to feature in City’s FA Cup fourth-round clash.

"Erling is not 100 percent,” Guardiola said. “We will see today how he feels.

“It is not a big issue the doctor said to me but he had some disturbance during the game and that's why he didn't play in the second half.

"We will see today (if he will be involved tomorrow)."

Guardiola also hinted that John Stones would make a return to the pitch after being involved in the matchday squad for the first time in two months against Fulham.

”He has already made two or three training sessions and we will see tomorrow if he plays or how many minutes he plays,” he added.

With City still fighting for silverware on four fronts, Guardiola admitted his side are “exhausted” by the fixture schedule and it ready for an increasingly-rare week-long break after the Salford clash.

He said: "Our priority is beating Salford and going to the next round. In this competition over the last years reaching finals, finals and finals. Unfortunately we could not win the last two finals but being there is always a success. I always think about that.

"Hopefully, before this long week that we need, because we are so, so exhausted physically and mentally from this incredible amount of games in many months - we can have a little break after the game tomorrow."