Man City have easy Erling Haaland call for Liverpool after injury confusion

There was a discrepancy on Wednesday between the results of medical checks on Erling Haaland and how the striker felt.

Manchester City were confident that they couldn't see an issue from the scare picked up late on in the Newcastle game, yet the No.9 went to Pep Guardiola and said something didn't seem right. He was in pain, particularly when using the stairs, and so the decision was taken to go without him at the Bernabeu and City's chances of upsetting the European champions went from two per cent to about a hundredth of that.

The difference between scan and feel was enough for former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher to suggest Haaland simply didn't fancy it. 'Rudigeritis' was suggested as an excuse for the best No.9 on the planet who had been up for all 34 Premier League and Champions League games prior to Wednesday, scored twice against Real last week and captained the team to a 4-0 win over Newcastle at the weekend.

Whether it is genuinely Carragher's opinion or just the top bantz enjoyed by the CBS boys, the verdict was so wide of the mark that even Micah Richards felt compelled to defend his former club. Maybe Carragher is still bitter that Haaland won the Treble four months after the pundit said he had joined the wrong team, but it doesn't need much sense to know that it is important to listen to the players over injury.

If it wasn't like that in Carragher's time, maybe that is why Liverpool didn't win the Treble or four consecutive Premier League titles while he played. Cross-referencing the science with human checks has been the standard for a while, be it with Haaland or any other player.

City do not need to listen to any outside noise to work out whether Haaland will be fit to face Liverpool on Sunday, they