Norway explain Erling Haaland absence as Nathan Ake provides Man City with fresh injury concern

Erling Haaland was an unused substitute in Norway’s friendly win over Jordan, while Nathan Ake was replaced for the Netherlands in their win over Greece.

Erling Haaland was only rested for Norway in Thursday’s win over Jordan ahead of next week’s more important match, but Manchester City may be concerned about the nature of first-half replacement Nathan Ake in the win over the Netherlands before Greece.

Haaland has scored six goals for Man City this season, adding to his tally of 52 last term, and has embarked on international duty to try to help Norway improve their position. qualify for Euro 2024 next summer.

Norway finished third behind Scotland and Georgia in Group A, one point ahead of Spain but having played two more matches than the Spaniards. Securing the top two spots could be difficult, so a home win against second-placed Georgia is essential on Tuesday.

For this reason, Norwegian boss Stale Solbakken never risked Haaland in Thursday’s friendly against Jordan, citing Haaland’s workload for Man City as a good reason to let him go. He rested a few more days before their important qualifiers.

Meanwhile, Nathan Ake started in a useful qualifying win for the Netherlands as Ronald Koeman changed formation against Greece and got their campaign back on track.

Explaining his team selection aheadof the comfortable 6-0 win, Solbakken said: “Thiswas a conversation with him that I had on the same level as the other 13-14 qualified to start.

“They [City] started pre-season 14 days later than everyone else because of the Champions League. There is a slightdelay, which graduallydecreaseseach day. Afterthat, we thought it wouldmakemore sense for him to prepare and train with Bjørn Vidar Stenersen [physician/coach]tobe100%fiton Tuesday.”

Solbakken remainsonschedule his own, with Haaland still firmly on the bench, and he will beexpected to bringon his star striker, knowing that the two strikers will likely be away from Norway in Tuesday after Georgia plays Spain and Scotland willface Cyprus on Friday night.

The Netherlands lost to France in the firstround, but bounced back with an unconvincing win over Gibraltar and now a much better 3-0 winover Greece, returning to a 3-4-3 formationtradition with wingers – using Ake as acentre-forward.centre-backto the left of the threedefenders.

While the Netherlandsled 3-0 at half-time, Ake did not comeoff after the break, replacedby Stefan de Vrij. NOS reported that Ake felt his hamstring before the break and Koeman confirmed the substitution was just a precaution.

City will now await news of another potential injury, when the Netherlands take on Ireland onSunday in Dublin. Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones and Jack Grealish wereabsentfrom their nationalteams during the international break dueto injury problems.