Sawt Falasteen - City star Haaland out until end of January: Guardiola

Haaland has missed City's last eight games with a foot injury suffered in early December in a major blow to their hopes of retaining the Premier League title.

Guardiola had hoped to welcome the 23-year-old back early in the new year, but the problem is proving more troublesome than expected.

Haaland is not yet back in full training in a concerning development for City.

Guardiola hopes the Norway star can step up his rehabilitation when City travel to Abu Dhabi for a warm-weather training camp after Saturday's Premier League game at Newcastle.

"Yes, a little bit of disturbing problems in his feet. It's fine but the doctors decided to stop for one week and maybe restart in Abu Dhabi," Guardiola told reporters on Friday.

"Hopefully at the end of this month he'll be ready. It was a little bit more than we expected in the beginning.

"It's the bone. It needs time. With every injury you can do whatever you want but it's a question of time."

Haaland scored 52 goals last season during a treble-winning first campaign with City and had netted 19 this term.

Guardiola admits his firepower has been sorely missed as City trail leaders Liverpool by five points.

"We miss Erling a lot," the Spaniard said. "We need him. Hopefully he can come back and play the last four or five months without a problem.

"When you are injured at end of November, you miss a lot of games. It's the toughest period."

In a further blow for City, Swiss defender Manuel Akanji is facing a spell on the sidelines.

Akanji was forced off early in last weekend's FA Cup third round victory over Huddersfield and joins fellow centre-back John Stones on City's casualty list.

"He will be some weeks out. It's not a big problem but until the end of the month," Guardiola said.

"Now we're lucky that we don't have games in the next 10 days after Newcastle. We'll see how they feel in the good weather in Abu Dhabi."

B.Mahmoud--SF-PST