Pep Guardiola offers fresh Erling Haaland injury update after he missed Leeds win

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Pep Guardiola is unsure whether Erling Haaland will make his return for Manchester City when they play Nottingham Forest on Wednesday. Haaland missed City's 1-0 win over Leeds on Saturday evening with a "little injury" and it remains to be seen when he is fit enough to play again.

With the Premier League's top goalscorer unavailable, Guardiola was forced to adapt his approach against Leeds. He fielded Omar Marmoush and Antoine Semenyo up front and the January signing from Bournemouth netted the game's only goal by sliding in Rayan Ait-Nouri's low cross.

Victory saw City put pressure onto leaders Arsenal by cutting the gap to just two points before they played Chelsea on Sunday. The Gunners responded well by picking up a 2-1 win over their rivals , but the title race will continue on Wednesday, with or without Haaland.

"Two days ago in training he had some problems and a little injury. Not a big issue but not ready for today," Guardiola said before kick off at Elland Road. "We are without one top striker and we are playing with another top striker."

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The City boss was then pressed for a possible return timeline after the win. Asked if Haaland could play against Forest, Guardiola said: "I don't have the answer right now. He was not ready for today, but we have four days before Nottingham Forest . And after three days in FA Cup at Newcastle at 8pm - thank you so much for that time to go better to Madrid with less recovery, I thank you."

City host relegation-threatened Forest at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night before turning their attention to the FA Cup on the weekend. As Guardiola sarcastically said, he isn't best pleased about the late kick-off time at St James' Park on Saturday, with his squad then due in Spain to face Real Madrid in the first leg of their last-16 tie on March 11.

When asked about the punishing schedule, Guardiola said the return from injury of Haaland and winger Jeremy Doku will help ease the load. But an injury to in-form Nico O'Reilly against Leeds hasn't helped things.

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The 20-year-old was substituted for Tijjani Reijnders in the 70th minute after picking up a knock. “It’s for the ankle,” Guardiola explained. “He had a knock in the ankle and played on and was out.”

City are unbeaten in nine matches across all competitions, winning eight of those games, and are hitting their stride at the crucial point in the season following a 3-1 defeat by Bodo/Glimt in Norway.

“Always I think when you arrive at two months, now it’s three months, now February is over, March arrive here, everything is a mindset,” Guardiola said. “It’s okay, one game at a time and do everything to win the game. At the end it is what you have to do.”

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