- Nabeel
Erling Haaland travels but four Manchester City players to miss USA pre-season tour
Manchester City have revealed their travelling squad for their United States pre-season tour with four notable first-team absentees.
The Premier League champions are due to face Club America at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, at 1:30 am BST on Thursday, July 21st, and Bayern Munich at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin, at 12:00 am BST on Sunday, July 24th. Both games will be broadcast live on CITY+.
Confirmed travelling squad: Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, Kalvin Phillips, Nathan Ake, Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Rodrigo, Kevin De Bruyne, Stefan Ortega, Julian Alvarez, Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez, Joao Cancelo, Ederson, Scott Carson, Liam Delap, Kayky, Luke Mbete, Cole Palmer, James McAtee, Josh Wilson-Esbrand, Oscar Bobb, Rico Lewis, Finley Burns, Ben Knight.
Pep Guardiola will be without Aymeric Laporte, Ilkay Gundogan, John Stones, and Phil Foden – with the latter three expected to prepare with the club's Under-23s in Croatia instead.
On Friday evening, news first emerged from Sami Mokbel in the Daily Mail that Gundogan, Stones and Foden would not be travelling with the first-team squad to the US for unconfirmed reasons, with the three players to prepare for the season with the U-23s, while the first-team are in the States.
On Saturday morning, Sam Lee at The Athletic was able to confirm the reason for Gundogan's absence after obtaining permission, with the German international unable to enter the US due to only having received one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
The Atheltic explain that the 31-year-old was given his first dose last summer but was deemed by German law as being fully vaccinated as he had already had the virus. Gundogan intended to get the second dose in order to enter the US for pre-season but contracted the virus again in June and was subsequently advised by doctors to not get the second dose until three months after returning a negative test – meaning he is not fully vaccinated under US law.
Gundogan will therefore join Stones and Foden in preparing for the new campaign with the U-23s in Croatia – no reason has been provided as to why the two England internationals will not be travelling with the first-team squad, with their absences put down to 'US entry requirements'.
Laporte has also been omitted from the travelling party and has not been pictured by club photographers in training all week, with the Spain international currently nursing a fitness issue. The 28-year-old revealed at the end of last season that he continued playing despite suffering a knee injury against Wolves on matchday 36 of the Premier League season to see out the season amidst a defensive injury crisis.
Oleksandr Zinchenko is closing in on a move to Arsenal for an expected fee between £30 million and £35 million but has travelled with the squad. The Gunners are, however, also in the US.
Academy forward Samuel Edozie has been pictured in training by club photographers this week after it was expected that he would be sealing a move to Bayer Leverkusen for a reported fee of around £10 million before pre-season preparations began. The 19-year-old has not been listed in the travelling squad for pre-season, suggesting the move could now be going ahead or another solution to the player's future is imminent.
Elsewhere, Lewis Fiorini has joined Blackpool in the Championship on a season-long loan from the Blues. The 20-year-old midfielder spent last season on loan at Lincoln City in League One, making 44 appearances.
Written by: @NA1907_
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