Pep Guardiola is hopeful that Erling Haaland will be fit to fire Manchester City to Club World Cup glory

Pep Guardiola is hopeful Erling Haaland will be fit to fire Manchester City to a first ever Club World Cup, but the Norwegian is set to miss Saturday’s Premier League clash against Crystal Palace.

City are competing in the Club World Cup, which is live on TNT Sports, for the first time after winning the Champions League in June.

Haaland missed the 2-1 win at Luton last weekend after picking up a foot problem in a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa.

The 23-year-old has scored 19 goals in 20 Premier and Champions League appearances this season and would be a major miss for City should he not be available for the tournament in Saudi Arabia.

“He has been for treatment away. Hopefully he can travel to Saudi tomorrow after the game,” Guardiola told his pre-match press conference on Friday.

“I think he is going to travel with us and after that we will see if he is able to play the first game or the second or when we come back.

“It’s not fractured, just stress. Sometimes players recover quicker or longer. The doctors say we have to take it day-by-day, week-by-week on how he feels.

“At the moment he doesn’t have symptoms or doesn’t feel pain, he will be available to play again.”

City will face Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds in the Club World Cup semi-finals on Tuesday and are strong favourites to add more silverware to their treble from last season despite their poor form of late.

Guardiola’s men had gone four Premier League games without a victory prior to coming from behind to win at Kennilworth Road last weekend.

Chelsea in 2012 were the last Champions League winners to fail to go on to win the Club World Cup, when they lost to Corinthians.

Guardiola has already won the competition three times during his spells at Barcelona and Bayern Munich and wants City to make the most of a “big opportunity” to continue growing on the international stage.

“It’s a big opportunity for us,” Guardiola told TNT Sports.

“To play in that competition you have to win the Champions League, there is no other option to play there.

“It’s not easy and the club has never done it before. So we’re going to try to perform well.”

Egypt’s Al Ahly will face South American champions Fluminense in the other semi-final after they shocked star-studded hosts Al-Ittihad 3-1, with Karim Benzema missing a penalty, on Friday.

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