Jamie Carragher has moved to explain himself after his comments on Erling Haaland baffled Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.
Haaland was surprisingly on the substitutes’ bench when City travelled to take on Real Madrid in the Champions League last week.
The Norwegian remained on the bench throughout the game as Guardiola’s side were beaten 3-1 and dumped out of the competition.
While Haaland missed out, Real Madrid fielded a returning Antonio Rudiger at centre-back and Carragher suggested on CBS Sports that the Norwegian was scared to face the German.
‘Let me work this out, Haaland has gone to the manager in the morning and said he’s not fit? Do you think that’s got something to do with Rudiger? Is that because Rudiger is playing?’ Carragher asked on CBS.
‘He’s on the bench so he can’t be injured. I never went to see the manager on the morning of a game and said I’m not fit.
‘So he’s injured, is he? It’s Rudiger-itis is it? Is that what we’re saying here?’
The comments were put to Guardiola ahead of Manchester City facing Liverpool on Sunday in the Premier League and the Catalan seemed shocked.
‘Oh God, did Jamie Carragher say that? Oh God,’ Guardiola said in a press conference. ‘I don’t laugh. I don’t know why it’d be that suspicious. Do you think Erling Haaland didn’t want to play that game?’
He then explained: ‘It’s not true. It was crazy to play the game. He had a problem in his knee and he could not play.’
Carragher has now explained why he feels he has been misrepresented, claiming that he was just joking with former Manchester City defender Micah Richards on CBS, which is often the tone of the show.
The Liverpool legend aimed a pop at the journalist who presented his comments to Guardiola in the process.
He wrote on X: ‘It was a joke to wind up Micah Richards as that’s the nature of our show on CBS and you know that @MullockSMirror but you just thought let’s get a big headline for my piece! Typical Sunday papers!!!’
Manchester City host Liverpool on Sunday afternoon and whether Haaland will be involved is yet to be seen.
Asked at the press conference on Friday, Guardiola said of his star striker’s availability: ‘Yeah, maybe. We will train today. Tomorrow we will test.
‘It is better to have Erling on the pitch, we don’t have it but with Erling we are in the position we are in now.’
Certain to miss out is John Stones, who went off injured at Real Madrid and could need an operation on the thigh problem he suffered.
‘He is injured,’ Guardiola said of the England defender. ‘It is a difficult one, [in the] next hours or days we will know if he needs surgery.’