Maresca Says Semenyo Is Out for Up to Eight Weeks, Haaland Doubtful

Table of Contents

Enzo Maresca says Antoine Semenyo will be out for “probably eight weeks” with a knee injury picked up in Saturday’s 3-2 win over Ipswich.
Erling Haaland, who scored twice against Ipswich and limped off at full time, “can be available” for Tuesday’s Champions League game against AEK Athens.
Maresca says City “need to win games” after the defeat by Paris Saint-Germain, and will pick “our best players in this moment”.

Maresca Gets the Scan Result He Feared Most

Manchester City’s perfect Premier League start has hit its first real selection problem. Enzo Maresca has told reporters that Antoine Semenyo will miss “probably eight weeks” after scans on the knee he hurt in Saturday’s win over Ipswich.

The City head coach called the result better than the club expected. “After the scan, we feel much better,” Maresca said, and the club had feared the injury could be worse. “It could be eight weeks, so now the most important thing is for him to recover.”

Haaland Is the Bigger Question

The more pressing worry for City is Erling Haaland. Haaland and Semenyo both limped down the tunnel at the end of the 3-2 home win over Ipswich, a game in which Haaland scored twice to keep City six points clear at the top of the table.

On Saturday night Maresca said he did not know how serious the problem was. “I don’t know. I asked him; he said he was ok. Nothing serious,” he said. By Monday his message was more cautious. “He can be available. We see,” Maresca said. “We have a session now. We have some doubts after Saturday’s game. He was quite good yesterday, better, so we’ll see today.”

Haaland then missed City’s training session after the news conference, which left doubts over whether he would be fit for Tuesday’s match against AEK Athens. Mateus Nunes, Mateo Kovacic and Nico O’Reilly were also absent after going off injured against Ipswich. Maresca was more relaxed about that group. “They are more or less all okay,” he said. “The only one that will be out for probably eight weeks will be Antoine.”

Four Players Down in Ten Minutes

After the Ipswich game Maresca described how quickly the problems arrived. “Unfortunately, in 10 minutes, we had four or five players [with injury issues]. Kovacic, Erling, Antoine and Nico,” he said.

The schedule is heavy. City have six games in the next three weeks before the November international break. AEK Athens visit on Tuesday in the Champions League at home, then City travel to Aston Villa on October 24. Brighton visit twice, in the Carabao Cup fourth round on October 28 and in the Premier League on October 31. RB Leipzig arrive in the Champions League on November 4, and a trip to Nottingham Forest follows on November 7.

Maresca had already raised the subject of workload last week. “At some point we need to give him some rest, some days off, we’re thinking about this,” he said of Haaland. He added that the same applied to others who play every minute for City and their national teams, naming Elliot, Enzo, Marc, Erling and Ruben.

A Game City Cannot Afford to Drop

Maresca left little room for rotation on the AEK Athens game, even with the fitness doubts. Asked whether he would avoid risks with injured players, he said: “It’s a huge game tomorrow. Unfortunately, we lost the last one [against PSG] so we need to win games and we are going to try to win the game with our best players in this moment.”

For a team with a perfect Premier League start, the midweek loss to PSG was the one defeat Maresca has had to explain. Last week he called it “a good learning process for me and for everyone”. The next lesson is about depth: Semenyo is gone for about two months, and Maresca will wait to see how Haaland responds after the session before deciding whether his striker can play.

WRITTEN BY

Jarrod

Jarrod Partridge is the Founder of Futbol Chronicle and an accredited journalist with over 30 years of experience following international football. A member of the AIPS International Sports Press Association, Jarrod has covered matches at stadiums around the world, bringing first-hand insight to every match report, player profile, and tactical analysis he writes.