Man City boss Guardiola reveals Haaland suffers 'some niggles'

For the first time so far in pre-season, Erling Haaland was substituted from a game without scoring. The Norwegian went off without a goal in his side's 2-2 draw with Barcelona. The Manchester City striker had managed to score in both the 3-4 defeat to Celtic and the Sky Blues' 2-3 loss over Milan, but failed to get on the scoresheet against the Catalans.

Having played 68 minutes in the first of those games, Haaland played only the first half, as he did against the Italians, and Pep Guardiola spoke about how the Norwegian has fared so far in the build-up to the new season.

"He got some niggles. He didn't feel good. He is disturbing something, doesn't feel comfortable, we don't want to take risks," he told reporters. "Sooner or later he has to take a step. He has niggles, muscular, don't want to take a risk and lose him for three weeks. That would be a problem.

"Sixty, 70 per cent of the squad are on holiday. At the same time, we have alternatives, Oscar [Bobb] makes an incredible job. We're pleased with many things," Guardiola added.