Pep Guardiola claims Man City have fixed Erling Haaland's injury problems
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has suggested that Erling Haaland is over the niggling injury problem that limited him to 71 appearances in two full seasons at Borussia Dortmund.
Haaland has emerged as one of the most prolific goalscorers in the world in recent years, netting an astonishing 149 times for club and country since the start of his breakout 2019/20 season.
The Norwegian scored virtually a goal per game for Dortmund last season (29 in 30) but he had multiple spells out of action because of muscle injuries. As a result, there were some concerns over how he might hold up in the more physical Premier League this season.
But even though Guardiola hinted earlier in the campaign at rest and rotation being important, Haaland is yet to miss a game for City and has scored 14 times in only 10 appearances.
The City boss puts that down to working with City physio Mario Pafundi, who even travelled with Haaland on international duty recently to keep an eye on things.
“Erling struggled a lot in Dortmund last year with injuries and arrived here with small problems. He started to work with Mario and other guys and thanks to them and [Haaland’s] work ethic, he can play regularly now,” Guardiola explained ahead of Sunday’s Manchester derby.
Haaland had the opportunity to join Manchester United in January 2020, a move that would have reunited him with former Molde boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. But he chose Dortmund and that time and then didn’t even consider United as an option for him this past summer.
“On our list, I think City is the best team,” his father Alf Inge Haaland said in the film documenting the player’s decision-making process.
“[Bayern] Munich is number two. We have Real Madrid as number three, Paris Saint-Germain as number four. We also have some English teams other than City who are quite good…Liverpool and Chelsea. Also, there is Barcelona. They are sort of in the same row.”
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