Man City boss Pep Guardiola makes Erling Haaland injury admission ahead of Club World Cup

Manchester City will assess Erling Haaland on Friday but Pep Guardiola indicated that he may not be fit enough to take part in the Club World Cup.

Haaland has missed the last two matches with a foot injury and didn't travel with the squad for the Champions League game against Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade. The Norwegian was in Marbella instead for treatment, and only returned to the club on Friday. He will be assessed by the doctors upon his return but Guardiola is not expecting the striker to come back imminently given his awareness of the injury and the situation so far.

While Haaland is expected to travel with the group to Saudi Arabia for the Club World Cup next week, City will leave it up to the striker to decide when he feels comfortable enough to play. "He arrived today and the doctors will see him and we will see how he feels," Guardiola said ahead of the Crystal Palace game. "He had treatment away.

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"Hopefully he can travel to Saudi and we will see if he is able to play in the first game or the second game, or when we come back. I don't think he will play [against Palace] but maybe he surprises me.

"Sometimes players recover quickly, sometimes longer. Day by day, week by week, how he feels. The moment he doesn't have pain he will play."

City will resume their Premier League title defence against Palace on Saturday. The Blues are currently four points behind league leaders Liverpool.