Maresca sweats on five City injury scares after Haaland limps off against Ipswich

Enzo Maresca is hoping Erling Haaland has avoided serious injury after the striker limped off at the end of Manchester City’s 3-2 Premier League victory over Ipswich. Haaland was one of five City players to pick up apparent knocks during the match, leaving Maresca with a significant fitness headache heading into the next fixture.

Haaland had been in fine form before the scare, scoring twice to extend his run of scoring in consecutive appearances for City to eight games. The Norwegian now has 12 goals in all competitions this season, and his double helped City secure a seventh straight Premier League win. He appeared to have completed a hat-trick late on, only for VAR to rule out the effort after adjudging Enzo Fernandez to have been offside in the build-up.

Speaking after the final whistle, Maresca offered cautious optimism about Haaland’s condition. “I asked him and he said he was okay so hopefully it is nothing serious,” the City manager said. “We will see. I don’t have any news at the moment.”

Haaland was not alone in his discomfort. Mateo Kovacic, Matheus Nunes and Nico O’Reilly were all substituted during the game with apparent problems, while substitute Antoine Semenyo also walked gingerly off the pitch at full-time alongside Haaland.

Maresca addressed all five cases in his post-match comments. “Unfortunately in 10 minutes we had four of five players — Matheus, Kova, Erling, Antoine and Nico also — but they are inside now and we will see,” he said. “I asked all of them. Mateo and Kova said they was okay, Erling also said he was okay and Nico is still his back if you remember against Coventry. It’s still the same problem. The only one we need to wait on is Antoine.”

The cluster of injury concerns represents a potentially costly afternoon for City despite the positive result. O’Reilly’s back problem is a recurring issue that pre-dates the Ipswich match, while Semenyo’s condition remains the most uncertain of the five, with Maresca indicating he needs more time before providing a clearer assessment.