Erling Haaland has offered Manchester City fans hope with an encouraging injury update in his battle to return to fitness before the campaign’s conclusion.

The relentlessly prolific Norwegian sunk to the turf after awkwardly landing on his ankle during Manchester City’s triumphant FA Cup quarter-final against Bournemouth last month, ultimately leaning back on the pitch with his legs crossed in resignation.

Pep Guardiola swiftly confirmed that his leading scorer would be sidelined for the specifically vague period of somewhere between “five and seven weeks”, placing Haaland’s potential return date at around mid-May.

City’s talisman was spotted in the Etihad stands for Tuesday’s dramatic late victory against Aston Villa which saw the dethroned champions climb into the division’s top three. The battle for Champions League qualification is still very much alive and City could potentially be involved in the FA Cup final on 17 May.

Whether Haaland will be afforded any domestic action before this summer’s Club World Cup remains to be seen, although he did provide a positive update on his recovery. A video released on the forward’s Snapchat showed the burly striker tentatively jogging before delivering the message: “Getting there.”

Haaland had been recovering from a knee injury before damaging his ankle at the end of March, yet these fitness complaints of spring seemed highly unlikely back at the start of the season.

One of the few benefits to Norway’s failure to qualify for Euro 2024 was the unprecedented amount of rest afforded to Haaland. The 24-year-old had 36 days off – ten more than at any other stage of his senior career.

At the end of August, after watching his striker rattle in back-to-back Premier League hat-tricks, Guardiola gushed: “He stays 20 minutes or half an hour after training sessions to work on finishing, close control, short passes. Last season, not even once was he there [doing that work] because he didn’t feel good; tired, niggles, most of the season.”

“I have never felt better,” Haaland beamed on City’s 2024 pre-season tour to the United States, adding: “I don’t have any pain in my body, which is the first time for a long time.”

Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. But as Haaland recently revealed, he is getting there.

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