Haaland injury prevention plan revealed by Guardiola as Man City boss confirms Alvarez role

Erling Haaland’s injury problems at Borussia Dortmund were well documented, but Manchester City have a plan in place that will help to keep him fit and firing. That has proved successful so far, with the Norwegian striker taking in a rare 90-minute outing against Newcastle on Sunday.

He will not always figure so prominently in Pep Guardiola’s plans, with the Blues boss revealing that a £51 million ($60m) summer signing will be rotated out for highly-rated Argentine forward Julian Alvarez when the games start to stack up across domestic and European competition.

How will Man City keep Haaland fit?

Haaland was on target once again in a thrilling 3-3 draw at St James’ Park, but Guardiola admitted afterwards that he will not be asked to lead the line on multiple fronts.

The Catalan coach said of his plan to keep a 22-year-old superstar off the treatment table: “Good food, good rest.

“People say the apartment he’s bought has a good bed. Nothing special.

“What is important is he doesn’t have niggles. Last season he didn’t play 90 minutes because he was injured. The physios and doctors did an incredible job since he arrived to avoid injuries.

“Now he has one game a week. I tell you now when we have games every three days that Erling will not play, I will play Julian.

“One of my favourite players is Bernardo [Silva] and he did not play until today. Riyad [Mahrez] is by far one of my favourite players - especially on the biggest stages - and today he didn’t play. When we start with games every three days, everyone is going to play.”

How many games did Haaland miss for Dortmund through injury?

While Haaland’s goal record at Dortmund was stunning, as he found the target on 86 occasions through 89 appearances, he did have an unfortunate habit of picking up knocks.

In total, he sat out 28 games across two-and-a-half seasons.

Knee, hip and muscle problems kept him stuck on the sidelines at various intervals, with City aware of the need to manage him carefully and ensure that he is not pushed to breaking point.

Guardiola boasts the depth in his squad to make that possible, with Alvarez another of those to have caught the eye after completing a move to the Etihad Stadium during the summer of 2022.