Manchester City has a tough Carabao Cup match against Brighton on Wednesday, Oct. 28, but the club will still be without star striker Erling Haaland.
Haaland was not on the squad for the round-of-16 match at the Etihad Stadium, meaning he won't even be available off the bench for the all-Premier League affair.
The Norway star is off to another strong start to the season, scoring 13 goals in 10 games as City sits atop the Premier League table level on points with Arsenal.
But amid a busy period of matches that includes league, cup and Champions League fixtures, Haaland and some of City's other key players have been given a rest.
Haaland scored in Man City's 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday, Oct. 24. After that match, the forward and four teammates
– Josko Gvardiol, Ruben Dias, Elliot Anderson and Gianluigi Donnarumma – were given a brief holiday.
"After the Villa game, we gave five players three days off," City coach Enzo Maresca said at a press conference. "Erling, Ruben, Elliot, Gigi and Josko. They are all on holiday. Three days off, energy, go, come back full of energy and then go again."
Maresca has been looking for chances to give Haaland a bit of rest after he went from a busy World Cup in which he scored seven goals straight into the Premier League season.
“At some point we probably need to give him rest, some days off,” Maresca said earlier this month.
Haaland sat out the Carabao Cup win over Norwich last month and was an unused substitute for a Champions League win over AEK Athens last week.
Man City lineup vs. Brighton
Lining up tonight! 👊🩵
— Manchester City (@ManCity) October 28, 2026
XI | Rulli, Lewis, Reis, Guéhi (C), O'Reilly, Bouaddi, Kovačić, Foden, Cherki, Allan, Samba
SUBS | Bettinelli, Ndiaye, Doku, Fernández, Aït-Nouri, Khusanov, McAidoo, Braithwaite, Oliver
🤝 @etihad pic.twitter.com/O0FJuHWso3
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why is Erling Haaland not playing today? Man City star out vs. Brighton
