Erling Haaland ruled out for up to seven weeks in brutal Man City injury blow

Erling Haaland has been ruled out for up to seven weeks with an ankle injury, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has confirmed.

Haaland required treatment during the 2-1 FA Cup quarter-final win over AFC Bournemouth on Saturday and was forced off in the second half.

The Norway international, who has scored 21 goals across 28 Premier League games this season, left the Vitality Stadium on crutches.

City released a statement on Monday night to confirm their striker was set to ‘seek specialist consultation’ to confirm the full extent of the injury.

Guardiola has now held talks with City’s doctors, who have confirmed that the 24-year-old forward will be ruled out between five and seven weeks.

That makes Haaland a huge doubt for the FA Cup final on May 17 if City manage to defeat Nottingham Forest in the last four of the competition.

If there are no setbacks, Haaland should be able to feature in the final Premier League game of the season on May 25 against Fulham before the Club World Cup across June and July, and he could be back even earlier if his period of injury is closer to the five-week mark.

Which games will Erling Haaland miss?

With Erling Haaland set to miss at least the next five weeks of action, here is every game he is almost certain to miss…

• Leicester City (home) – April 2 – Premier League
• Manchester United (away) – April 6 – Premier League
• Crystal Palace (home) – April 12 – Premier League
• Everton (away) – April 19 – Premier League
• Aston Villa (home) – Rearranged, date TBC – Premier league
• Nottingham Forest (neutral) – April 26 – FA Cup semi-final
• Wolves (home) – May 2 – Premier League

If he’s out for the full seven-week period, Haaland will also miss the Premier League clash at Southampton and a potential FA Cup final. If City lose in the semi-finals, though, Haaland would miss a top-flight fixture with AFC Bournemouth instead.

‘They told me the doctors between five to seven weeks,’ Guardiola told reporters on Tuesday.

‘So hopefully the end of the season and by the Club World Cup he will be ready.

‘Sometimes there are years when these kinds of things happen. It happened all season.

‘I would say that it could have been different if it was the end of the season [before the Club World Cup].

‘So with all the injuries we have had this season, I’m so sorry for them and for Erling as well. [I wish him] a good recovery, as speedy as possible, then come back.’

Haaland will miss a number of important games for City, most notably the away clash at Manchester United on April 6 and the FA Cup semi-final showdown with Forest on April 26.

Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs which specialises in injury welfare and performance analytics working with the Premier League, has spoken exclusively to Metro about Haaland’s injury.

‘[It is] highly possible [that Haaland suffered a] syndesmosis sprain, or what is sometimes called a high ankle sprain,’ Smith told Metro.

‘The syndesmosis ligament wraps around your ankle and sort of binds it all together and keeping the joint held together.

‘It is a really difficult injury because every time you weight bear and your lower leg pushes into your ankle it squeezes apart. If you’ve damaged that ligament is starts to open that up and splay it.

‘It is a more traditional injury to get in rugby or American football and it comes from getting your foot squashed like that in a tackle and having your foot and ankle almost pushed back up into that joint and separates it.

‘It looked very similar to how something like that would happen and if that’s the case, depending on how bad the sprain is you could be looking at anything from four to almost 12 weeks.’