Manchester City are in the midst of a heated Premier League title race, with the reigning champions sitting eight points behind current leaders Arsenal. While Guardiola's men have a game in hand, their upcoming fixture is a showdown with Liverpool, and failure to win that game could prove extremely detrimental.

As a result, when footage from the Cityzens' Thursday training session emerged, the fans were hit with a huge blow, as a certain Erling Haaland could not be seen anywhere on the pitch.

The Norwegian superstar has been one of the players of the season, scoring 42 goals in 37 appearances in all competitions for the English side so far this season. However, his most recent game — a 6-0 win over Burnley which saw him bag a hat-trick — came at a cost as the former Dortmund striker picked up a groin issue.

The 22-year-old was thus sent back home from international duty but there was the hope of seeing him recover in time for Saturday's clash with Liverpool. However, the striker was absent from training, thus diminishing that hope.

Erling Haaland spotted in Manchester City training pic.twitter.com/PcqKyLd8KD

— Football Daily (@footballdaily) March 30, 2023

Another session will be held on Friday and that will be the decisive one for Man City's top scorer. The club are already without Phil Foden, who has been ruled out for this tie after undergoing surgery for acute appendicitis, and will not want to lose Haaland as well.

Guardiola's men lost the last time they crossed paths with the Merseyside giants. That game was held at Anfield, with Mohamed Salah scoring the only goal of the game. However, the Cityzens will have the home advantage this time around and have not suffered a defeat to the Reds at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League since November 2015.

This is a must-win tie for the defending champions. If De Bruyne and Co. lose to Liverpool, Arsenal could go 11 points clear at the top of the table — they will have to beat Leeds at the Emirates Stadium, however.