Pep Guardiola has provided clarity on Manchester City\u2019s squad ahead of the visit of Burnley, confirming that Erling Haaland will be available for Saturday\u2019s game. Guardiola offered a succinct assessment when asked about the Norway international. “He\u2019s ready.” The manager indicated Haaland\u2019s absence would not be extended, signalling confidence that the striker will be fit for selection.<\/p>\n
Guardiola was more measured on Mateo Kova\u010di\u0107, who has not featured this season after suffering an Achilles injury in May. “Maybe,” was the verdict given to midfielder Mateo Kova\u010di\u0107, who has not played this season after suffering an Achilles injury in May. “It would help a lot to have Kova back. It\u2019s a long injury, surgery, but he is getting ready. He is not fully ready but step-by-step.” Those remarks underline the long recovery process for Kova\u010di\u0107 and suggest gradual reintegration rather than an immediate return to action.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s fixture will also bring the return of Kyle Walker to the Etihad Stadium. Walker left City after falling out of favour last season, joining AC Milan on loan before completing a permanent move to newly promoted Burnley this summer. The reunion will be watched closely given recent events involving other former players. Walker will hope for a better reception than that endured by Kevin De Bruyne, who was substituted in the first half of Napoli\u2019s defeat to City in response to an early red card.<\/p>\n
Guardiola paid tribute to Walker\u2019s contribution during his time at City. “Pretty sure everyone will be happy to see him back,” he said. “Players like that have been unbelievable for us. The right back that defined our time here in the last nine to 10 years. Pretty sure he\u2019ll get the credit from our fans because he deserves it.” The manager\u2019s comments framed the match as both a fitness update and a moment to acknowledge a player who featured prominently in the club\u2019s recent history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guardiola says Haaland is available for Burnley; Kova\u010di\u0107 recovering from May Achilles surgery. Live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3113,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[795,238],"tags":[1084,1085],"class_list":["post-3114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-burnley","category-manchester-city","tag-achilles-injury","tag-mateo-kovacic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}