Erling Haaland of Manchester City has withdrawn from the Norway squad due to injury, according to reports.

The 22-year-old picked up a groin strain in Manchester City’s dominant 6-0 win over Burnley in the FA Cup – in that game, Haaland scored three of the Citzens’ six goals. As such, he will miss out on Norway’s Euro 2024 qualifying games against Spain and Georgia.

Currently, it is unclear how long the Norweigian nightmare will be out of action for – if he is not fit to play in City’s next competitive fixture against Liverpool on April 1, he will likely be replaced in the side by Julian Alvarez. They play Southampton after that with a huge clash with Bayern Munich

While Alvarez is a great understudy to Haaland, it will still be a hammer blow to the Sky Blues. Pep Guardiola and City fans alike will be biting their fingernails over his fitness – he is yet to be assessed by Manchester City’s medical team. Thankfully, the injury isn’t thought to be too serious.

To say Haaland has hit the ground running in the Premier League would be an enormous understatement. He has scored 28 goals in 26 games so far – he is just six goals away from equalling the highest tally of goals scored in a single Premier League season. City still have ten games left to play – it seems very likely that he will break this record.