"A bonus if he plays before Christmas" - Erling Haaland's father provides injury update on Borussia Dortmund striker

Haaland has missed Dortmund's last three competitive fixtures due to a hip flexor strain, and isn't expected back until December at the very earliest.

"If he gets a couple of games in before Christmas, it will be bonus, but even that's uncertain," revealed Alf-Inge Haaland in an interview with TV2 on Wednesday.

In conversation with SSYNIC on Twitch, meanwhile, Wolfsburg-owned Dortmund defender Marin Pongracic also spoke of a "6-8 week spell on the sidelines" for BVB's leading marksman.

Haaland led the Bundesliga scoring charts with nine goals in six appearances, prior to his injury. With 49 goals in as many Bundesliga games, the 21-year-old is poised to become the youngest and quickest player to post a half century of top-flight strikes.

Haaland has also scored four times across two DFB Cup and UEFA Champions League games so far this season to take his overall Dortmund tally to 70 goals in 69 matches. The 2021 Ballon d'Or candidate and reigning Golden Boy joined the club from Red Bull Salzburg in January 2020, and is contracted through to summer 2024.

If the prognosis is accurate, Haaland will miss Dortmund's remaining November fixtures against RB Leipzig, VfB Stuttgart, Sporting Lisbon and Wolfsburg, as well as Der Klassiker with record champions Bayern Munich on 4 December and BVB's final UEFA Champions League group game at home to Besiktas three days later.

Die Schwarzgelben - currently second in the Bundesliga, into the DFB Cup last 16 and on course to reach the Champions League knockouts - conclude the year with three league matches in the space of seven days against Bochum (11 Dec), Greuther Fürth (15 Dec) and Hertha Berlin (18 Dec), before the Bundesliga's customary winter break. Their season resumes away to Eintracht Frankfurt on 8 January 2022.