City beats Ipswich with Haaland brace, but comes away with five injury scares in ten minutes

A 3-2 win should leave a good taste in the mouth, but at Manchester City the final half hour turned into a small medical headache. The team got past Ipswich thanks to a brace from Erling Haaland, though the lasting image wasn't of the goals, it was of the Norwegian limping toward the tunnel before the final whistle had even sounded.

The knock came in stoppage time, after a hard collision with Jack Clarke. Haaland was visibly in pain and chose to walk off the pitch on his own, without waiting for the final whistle. Hardly reassuring for a fanbase that depends so heavily on his goals.

Enzo Maresca, for his part, tried to play down the scare. The Italian coach was cautious but not alarmist when asked about his striker's condition.

We'll see. Erling said he was fine. I don't have any news at the moment.Enzo Maresca

A casualty list that grew all at once

Haaland's knock was just one piece of a puzzle that got complicated fast. In barely ten minutes of the match, Maresca saw five different players either leave the field or complain of discomfort: besides Haaland himself, Mateo Kovacic, Matheus Nunes, Nico O'Reilly and Antoine Semenyo all picked up knocks.

The manager was blunt in describing the moment: "Unfortunately in ten minutes we had four or five players injured: Matheus, Kova, Erling, Antoine and also Nico, but they're all inside now and we'll see," Maresca explained. He said he spoke personally with each of them right after the final whistle.

I asked all of them. Mateo and Kova said they were fine. Erling also said he was fine, and Nico, it's still his back, if you remember the injury against Coventry. It's the same issue. The only one we have to wait on is Antoine.Enzo Maresca

That last name, Semenyo, is the one causing the most concern within the coaching staff. While the initial signs for Kovacic, Nunes and Haaland himself suggest nothing serious, and O'Reilly is carrying a back issue already known from the Coventry match, Semenyo's case was flagged as the only genuinely uncertain one, pending further tests and medical updates in the coming days.

With so many names banged up at once, the win over Ipswich fades a bit into the background. City take the three points, yes, but they're also left with questions: it remains to be seen how many of those five players will be available for the next fixture, and whether, in the end, the Haaland scare turns out to be just that, a scare.