Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola will give Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne until the last minute to prove their fitness for tomorrow’s FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea.
Haaland and De Bruyne both asked to come off during Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final, second leg defeat to Real Madrid – the Spanish side eventually prevailing on a penalty shoot-out – and will be assessed again before their availability is known for the game at Wembley.
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“Kevin seems well. Erling felt something, a muscular issue. Kevin felt exhausted, so tired, after five months out injured [at the start of the season], so that’s normal. We’ll see more tomorrow,” Guardiola said.
“It’s normal, with the amount of games we’ve played this season and in the previous seasons. There’s not much time for recovery, we played extra-time and the intensity we play…we are human beings, we are not machines, the fatigue is there.”
The Champions League exit ended City’s dream of registering the ‘double treble’ but with the FA Cup and Premier League – Guardiola’s men sit top of the table with six games to go – there is still plenty to play for.
He added: “I don’t want us to feel sorry for ourselves. In football you lose games. We performed at our best, we were not able to win. So what next?
“We don’t have time to reflect, we’ll do that in the summertime. You compete to win, but sometimes you lose games, and that’s what happened.
“I would prefer to play the title race and be in the Champions League. We are used [to that] because the last three years we arrive in semi-finals, finals. It is what it is.”
