Manchester City fans haven’t had much to be cheerful about over the international break so far, but an injury to Erling Haaland was one of a few things that could definitely have made things worse.

Haaland has scored seven goals in seven games for City this season, and he kicked off the international break with three goals in two against Denmark and Portugal.

But after a blank against Wales, Haaland asked to be substituted in the 67th minute in Norway’s second Portugal match, and he limped from the field.

City supporters will be particularly concerned about Haaland’s fitness because of the games they have coming up, travelling away to Anfield to face Liverpool on Sunday, before hosting Paris Saint-Germain next Wednesday.

But manager Stale Solbakken has played down concerns over Haaland’s fitness, suggesting the striker actually played for longer than they’d planned.

“Erling dug for a long time,” Solbakken said . “I think he took a lot of beatings and was a very good point guard. We were hoping for 60 (minutes), and he managed 65. That’s a lot of positives.”

Photo by FREDRIK VARFJELL/NTB/AFP via Getty Images

Norway teammate Patrick Berg also suggested Haaland’s main problem was simply running out of steam, having played every minute of the international break up until his substitution.

From a tactical formation and squad depth perspective, "Hat sich Haaland vor dem Spiel gegen Liverpool bei Norwegen verletzt?" carries substantial tournament implications for international seeding and domestic campaign momentum. Coaching staffs are heavily weighing high-pressing efficiency (PPDA), defensive transition pace, and fixture fatigue management.

Tactical analysts monitoring Pitch Telemetry metrics emphasize that squad adaptability and set-piece execution will likely dictate outcomes in high-leverage knockout environments. Real-time match telemetry and tracking data continue to inform managerial decision-making.

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