Haaland Injury Scare Overshadows City’s Win as Maresca Reveals Four More Knocks

Manchester City are sweating on the fitness of Erling Haaland after the striker limped out of Saturday’s 3-2 win over Ipswich with a foot injury, with manager Enzo Maresca admitting up to four other players also picked up knocks in a bruising afternoon at the Etihad Stadium.

Haaland scored twice against Ipswich to take his tally to twelve goals in all competitions this season, but he took a heavy blow to the foot late in the game and was visibly struggling as he left the pitch at the final whistle. City now face an anxious wait for the results of medical checks on their talisman ahead of a demanding run of fixtures.

“I asked him and he said he was OK”

Maresca tried to play down the concern after watching his side become only the third team in Premier League history to open a season with seven straight wins. “We will see. I asked him and he said he was OK, so hopefully it is nothing serious,” the Italian told reporters, while confirming the club would wait for scans before making any judgement on the Norway international’s availability.

The bigger worry for Maresca is the number of players who ended the match in the treatment room. In the space of ten second-half minutes, City lost Matheus Nunes, Mateo Kovacic, Antoine Semenyo and Nico O’Reilly to knocks, and the manager suggested Semenyo’s problem in particular could be the most serious of the lot.

Perfect start, imperfect afternoon

On the pitch, City survived a late scare as Zian Flemming’s stoppage-time penalty set up a nervy finish after Phil Foden’s opener and Daizen Maeda’s equaliser had been followed by Haaland’s double. The win kept City six points clear at the top and made Maresca the first manager in Premier League history to win his first seven matches in charge.

Off it, the European champions now have a mounting casualty list to manage during a congested period that mixes domestic fixtures with Champions League assignments. Haaland’s availability will be the headline question in every pre-match briefing this week, with the striker’s goals the engine of City’s 100 percent start.

What to watch next

City are expected to provide a fuller update once scan results are known. Fantasy managers and City supporters alike will monitor training closely: if Haaland sits out open sessions, Maresca may be forced into his first major attacking reshuffle of the campaign. For a squad already stretched thin across four competitions, the next seven days will tell us how deep the champions’ fitness problems really run.