Manchester City monitoring Erling Haaland fitness '24 hours a day' for treble pursuit

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola with striker Erling Haaland during the FA Cup quarter-final against Burnley in March 2023.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says the club will monitor the fitness of 45-goal striker Erling Haaland '24 hours a day' in their pursuit of three major trophies at the end of this season.

City now depend on themselves to win the Premier League after Arsenal's draw at Liverpool last Sunday, while Guardiola's side have one foot in the Champions League semi-finals after a 3-0 win over Bayern Munich on Tuesday and are also in the last four of the FA Cup.

Haaland has been a big part of their success this season, with 45 goals in all competitions and 30 in the Premier League already ahead of Saturday's game against Leicester.

"We take care of him 24 hours [a day], we have incredible doctors and physios, they are behind him every second of the day," Guardiola said on Friday.

"It's difficult to understand why you spend a lot of money [on players] and then leave them. I don't know what the other clubs do.

"Today with this demanding schedule of games every three or four days we have to take care of them. Sometimes they cannot train more than 10 or 15 minutes."

Guardiola took Haaland off after 63 minutes against RB Leipzig recently, even though the striker had scored five times, and subbed the Norwegian at the same time in their FA Cup win over Burnley when he had netted twice.

"People say why was he [Haaland] subbed against Leipzig when he'd scored all the goals but then he was injured after the Burnley game and cannot play with us against Liverpool," Guardiola said.

"He works so much time inside the training centre, much more than on the pitch. Today in modern football, players train more behind the scenes than on the pitch."

Ben Hayward
Weekend editor

Ben Hayward is a European football writer and Tottenham Hotspur fan with over 15 years’ experience, he has covered games all over the world - including three World Cups, several Champions League finals, Euros, Copa America - and has spent much of that time in Spain. Ben speaks English and Spanish, currently dividing his time between Barcelona and London, covering all the big talking points of the weekend on FFT: he’s also written several list features and interviewed Guglielmo Vicario for the magazine.