Erling Haaland faces a late fitness test as Manchester City wait to see if he is available to face Liverpool on Sunday but Pep Guardiola has suffered another injury blow as he worries that John Stones could be out for two months.
Even with Haaland almost ever-present this season, City are 17 points behind Liverpool and Guardiola said: “It is better to have Erling on the pitch, we don’t have it but with Erling we are in the position we are in now.”.
Akanji was ruled out for eight-to-10 weeks and Guardiola’s comments suggested he fears that Stones, who has a thigh problem, could be out until April, which would rule him out of Thomas Tuchel’s first games in charge of England.
Defender Stones went off after seven minutes in the Bernabeu following a collision with Kylian Mbappe and Guardiola is bracing himself for bad news as he waits to see if the England international will require an operation.
But Guardiola said that Kevin de Bruyne was not injured when he was left an unused substitute at the Bernabeu.
