City’s Haaland to miss Spurs game but close to return

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland will miss their FA Cup fourth round game with Tottenham Hotspur, but is close to a return to action, manager Pep Guardiola said on Thursday.

Haaland has missed City’s last nine games in all competitions with a foot injury, and Guardiola is prepared to wait until the Norwegian forward is fully recovered.

“He is on the verge to come back,” Guardiola told reporters.

“Tomorrow still he’s not ready but he’s close. Training camp was good, trained some sessions and the last two days here he trained but he’s not perfect and we wait a little bit more.”

The manager also reported that defender Manuel Akanji will miss Friday’s trip to Spurs but both defender John Stones and goalkeeper Ederson are available for selection.

Guardiola confirmed the news that midfielder Kalvin Phillips is in London for a medical at West Ham United prior to a probable loan move.

“It still isn’t done, but he travelled yesterday to make a medical test, but probably it is going to be a loan for six months, and hopefully he can play the minutes he deserves and I couldn’t give to him,” the manager said.

“If I give him 10-15 games in a row he will play good but I did not give him that. I have players in the squad and decide we are looking for different things.

“I can only say how grateful I am for his behaviour off the pitch and hopefully he can get the minutes and next season we will see what happens.”

The Director of Football Operations at City Football Group Omar Berrada recently left to join Manchester United as chief executive officer and Guardiola wished him well.

“He has been an important person for the organisation,” Guardiola said. “But he decided for himself to leave and the club will move forward and find the right person.”

Guardiola responded to UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin’s comments that European soccer’s governing body were right to ban City from European competition in 2020 for breaching financial regulations, a decision which was later overturned by CAS.

City, who have denied wrongdoing, are facing 115 charges from the Premier League over breaching financial rules.

“As the lawyer that he is, the president of UEFA he should wait, and after do whatever he wants,” Guardiola said.

“He has to wait, he has a lot of jobs to do in UEFA, the lawyers should respect the procedure. He knows we have the right to defend ourselves.”