• City manager rules out Jamie Carragher’s defender claim
• ‘It’s not true. He was crazy to play but had a knee problem’

Pep Guardiola was stunned into silence by Jamie Carragher’s ­suggestion that Erling Haaland missed Manchester City’s defeat at Real Madrid because he did not want to face Antonio Rüdiger. The Norwegian was an unused ­substitute in Spain after telling Guardiola he was unfit to take any part because of a knee injury suffered against Newcastle.

Haaland is a doubt for Sunday’s home game against Carragher’s ­former club Liverpool. Carragher said on CBS’s Champions League coverage on Wednesday that the striker might be suffering from “Rüdiger-itis” and that is why he told Guardiola he was not available for selection.