Manchester City will be without Erling Haaland for their Carabao Cup with Watford at 1.45am tomorrow morning, after the striker returned to Norway. Haaland, who scored his 10th Premier League goal in just five games, has been given a break by Manchester City following the of a family friend.

Haaland’s father’s best man and confidant Ivar Eggja passed away earlier this month at the age of 59. His funeral was due to take place this week and Haaland has returned to Norway to pay his respects. Haaland will therefore miss Man City’s next game.

Man City allowed Haaland to return to Norway following the of Ivar Eggja, but he stayed on for Premier League games against Brentford and Arsenal, as well as the Champions League with Inter Milan. Haaland is now expected to return to action for Man City against Newcastle at St James’s Park in the Premier League this weekend.

MANCHESTER

Haaland will be back on Tyneside after the Premier League revealed they will not be disciplining the Norwegian following his blunder in the 2-2 draw with Arsenal. Shortly after John Stones equalised in the dying seconds of the game, Haaland threw the ball straight at Gabriel Magalhaes’ head, before sparking a brawl with a tackle on Thomas Partey. Haaland was involved in another brawl at the end of the game, this time involving manager Mikel Arteta and former Man City striker Gabriel Jesus.

Haaland sarcastically told Arteta to “be humble” while telling Jesus to “get out of here”. The Premier League has decided not to give any retrospective punishment to either side. VAR checked the incident where Haaland threw the ball at Gabriel’s head at the time and determined it did not meet the threshold for intervention.