Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has revealed that he and his team provide round-the-clock care to Erling Haaland in an effort to prevent injury.
During Tuesday’s first-leg quarter-final win over Bayern Munich, the 22-year-old forward scored his 45th goal of the season.
He had recently recovered from a groin injury that had caused him to withdraw from international duty.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has revealed that he and his team provide round-the-clock care to Erling Haaland in an effort to prevent injury.
Haaland is the best scorer for Man City in his debut season
Haaland, who recently returned from a groin injury that forced him to withdraw from international duty, scored his 45th goal of the season during Tuesday’s first-leg quarter-final win over Bayern Munich.
He missed the 4-1 win over Liverpool earlier this month and was absent from a 1-0 win over Leicester City in October due to injury.
Haaland has made 39 appearances for City so far this season, a significant improvement on his injury-hampered campaign with Borussia Dortmund last year.
Guardiola said: “I don’t know what they have done, what he has done in Dortmund. But here we take care of him 24 hours.
“We have incredible physios, incredible doctors behind him, in every single detail. Always in the club we spoke about that.
“It’s difficult for me to understand when you spend a lot of money on players and you leave them. I don’t know what the other clubs do except for my experiences in the past.
“Today, with this demanding schedule every three days, behind the players you have to have an incredible entourage to take care of them.
“It’s so demanding today with the nutrition, the rest, the sleep, and the food, and the training, how many minutes.
City is fighting for Champions League and Premier League and the Norwegian is their most crucial player
In June, Manchester City acquired Haaland in a £51 million deal, and he appears to be on track to win the Premier League Golden Boot during his debut season in England.
Haaland has scored 30 goals in 27 league games and has added 11 more in the Champions League.
In addition to contributing to 50 goals, the City star has recorded six hat-tricks, including against Manchester United and RB Leipzig.
“There are days when they cannot train any more than 10/15 minutes. Otherwise it will be a risk.
“The people say, ‘Why was he substituted against Leipzig?’ when he scored all the goals. After one day after he was injured after Burnley, and was 10/15 days out, could not play with Norway, could not play with us against Liverpool.
“Because we know them, you have to be like a watch, because he’s so big, you have to be physios, massage, backs, and shoulders, his problems in his tendons, and everything.
“He works much, much, much, much time, but much, much time inside of the training centre than on the pitch in training. Much, much more.
“Today, in modern football, normally the players train more behind the scenes than on the pitch.”
