Erling Haaland did not train with Manchester City on Monday, raising concerns about an injury he picked up in the Premier League win over Ipswich. The striker limped off at full-time on Saturday and now looks certain to miss the Champions League match at home to AEK Athens.
Five players absent from training
Mateo Kovacic, Matheus Nunes and Nico O'Reilly also missed training after being substituted with knocks against Ipswich. Antoine Semenyo was also absent and will be out for eight weeks with a knee issue, although staff are relieved his injury is not as bad as first feared.
Youngsters Floyd Samba and Ryan McAidoo joined the session on Monday ahead of the Champions League clash with AEK.
Haaland's fitness in question
The absence of the Norwegian from training less than two days after hobbling out of the Etihad makes him a doubt to play at Aston Villa on Saturday even if he sits out the midweek fixture. Enzo Maresca had downplayed concerns about Haaland, insisting he remained front and centre of his thinking on who should lead the team rather than discussing alternatives.
"[Erling] can be available. We will see. We have a session now. We have some doubts after Saturday's game. He was quite good yesterday, better," Maresca said. "The rest are more or less okay."
Semenyo's injury update
"The only one that will be out for probably eight weeks is Antoine. In the first moment we expect an even worse injury so we were more worried but after the scan we are less worried. It could be eight weeks. Now the most important thing is to recover it. When he is back, around December, we have a new player. It's not muscular," Maresca added.
