New Delhi, Dec 28 (IANS): Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has given an update on Erling Haaland's possible return date saying that he hopes the striker will be back in the new year.

Haaland has been out of action since injuring his foot a few weeks ago and didn't feature in Manchester City's success at the FIFA Club World Cup.

"Still he’s not with the team. He feels better but he hasn’t made one training session with us. Hopefully, in January he can come back with us," Guardiola told Amazon Prime.

That means Haaland is likely to miss this weekend's match against Sheffield United and possibly their FA Cup third-round tie with Huddersfield Town on January 7 as well as their encounter with Newcastle United on January 13, Premier League reported.

Guardiola also spoke about Kevin De Bruyne, who is nearing a return to action having been injured a hamstring on the opening weekend of the season.

"Last week he trained with us, today he had a little bit of fatigue because he’s training hard," Guardiola added.

City sit in fourth in the league, after their 3-1 win against Everton on Wednesday evening and are five points adrift of leaders Liverpool, but the champions do have a match in hand.