Pep Guardiola says Erling Haaland will return to training with the rest of the Manchester City squad on Thursday.

The Norwegian striker has not travelled to Belgrade for Wednesday’s Champions League meeting with Red Star after missing Sunday’s victory at Luton with a foot complaint.

City have already guaranteed top spot in Group G but will be looking for victory in Serbia to end the group stage with a perfect 18 points for the first time.

We return to Premier League action on Saturday with the visit of Crystal Palace but Guardiola cannot be certain whether Haaland will feature in that game.

Red Star v City | Match preview

Asked whether Haaland has trained since the game at Luton, Guardiola said: “No. He’ll be back I think Thursday. We’ll see how he feels.”

He then stated he will provide a further update on our No.9 in Friday’s press conference in Manchester.

“I don’t know [if he will play v Palace] right now. Next press conference I could be more precise about his conditions.”

City have been without talismanic midfielder Kevin De Bruyne since the Premier League opener with Burnley back in August.

While Guardiola admits he would love to have the Belgian available, he doesn’t believe it has had a definitive impact on us so far this season with the Blues four points off the top of the Premier League and safely through in the Champions League.

“Of course I’d prefer Kevin is with us,” he said.

“Of course we need him. You have to handle the situation with the players we have.”

“I’ve said many times, when we have stable positions with players like last season, the cover with the players you mention.

“Of course, the word isn’t miss something but change something and you need time to adapt. But I have the feeling so far is good, we don’t drop too much.

“But we have standards, we lost one game in six or seven so it’s a big disaster. The others we draw but perform really well.”

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