Haaland Limps Off in Porto and Manchester City Face an Anfield Waiting Game
Haaland asked off after 67 minutes in Norway's loss to Portugal, limping as he went. Solbakken calls it fatigue management; City are still waiting on their own assessment before Liverpool.
Published 6 Oct 20262 min read
Erling Haaland asked to come off, pointed at his leg and limped towards the Norway bench, and with one gesture he turned Manchester City's biggest week of the season into a waiting game. The striker was replaced by Jorgen Strand Larsen in the 67th minute of Norway's 2-1 Nations League defeat by Portugal in Porto on Sunday, with the score still 1-1, and took a seat on the bench rather than heading down the tunnel for assessment.
What actually happened in Porto
Norway led through Kristoffer Ajer before Joao Cancelo levelled, and it was at 1-1 that Haaland beckoned to the bench. Goncalo Ramos won it for Portugal after 79 minutes, by which time City's top scorer was already off the pitch and already the story of the night. He has seven goals this season and had started all seven of City's games in all competitions, arriving at this window off the back of a summer that took Norway to the World Cup quarter-finals.
Solbakken: a plan, not a collapse
Norway head coach Stale Solbakken moved quickly to play down the scare, calling the substitution pre-planned and pointing at a fixture calendar he described as gruelling — close to insane, in his words. He revealed he had held a heart-to-heart with Haaland before the match, planned 45 to 60 minutes for him, and admitted the striker was tired after the Portugal matchday schedule. Haaland, like several Norway players, was given a few days off before reporting back to Manchester.
What it means for Anfield
City returned from the break top of the Premier League with five wins from five, and their next fixture is the one the whole league had circled: Liverpool at Anfield. The club have given no official update on Haaland's fitness, and the medical staff will want their own assessment of a player who was visibly not moving freely before he came off. If he cannot start, City's central options are thin, and a fixture that rarely needs extra tension has found it.
The hopeful reading is fatigue management. The worry is that he asked to come off. By the middle of the week, City's training report will tell us which one it was.