News

Erling Haaland’s injury status is the big talking point this week and Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola’s news conference will be important.

If City are without the Norway striker then that £15m or so is going to burn a hole in FPL managers’ pockets.

The three big-money midfielders – Mohamed Salah, Cole Palmer and Bukayo Saka – have all underwhelmed this season, so who would you move the cash to?

Be sure to check out our live Q&A with FPL expert Gianni Buttice at 15:30 GMT on Tuesday as this is sure to be a key topic for him.

An absolute stormer with returns from eight players including captain Bruno Fernandes (26 points), Hugo Ekitike (15) and Harry Wilson (12).

Gianluigi Donnarumma, Manchester City, goalkeeper, £5.6m – Nottingham Forest (h)

Manchester City have three clean sheets in their past four home games and face a Forest side in another difficult period.

With few obvious clean sheets around this week, Donnarumma is worth the price.

Nico O’Reilly, Manchester City, £5.1m – Nottingham Forest (h)

Returning from last week’s team is O’Reilly, who is playing out of position as a midfielder and could easily have scored against Leeds last week.

He had two big chances and an expected goals (xG) of 0.32 – only Antoine Semenyo bettered that.

Gabriel, Arsenal, £7.1m – Brighton (a)

Only four players have outscored Gabriel in FPL this season and one of them, Haaland, is potentially injured.

Arsenal’s corner prowess means Gabriel is pretty much a set-and-forget, although more than 50% of FPL managers still don’t own him!

Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool, £6.1m – Wolves (a)

The Dutchman now has 35 points in his past three games and Liverpool are on a roll as they chase a Champions League spot.

Bruno Fernandes, Manchester United, £9.9m – Newcastle (a)

Is Fernandes a must-pick for the rest of the season? He’s got four double-digit returns in seven games.

His 59 points since returning from injury in week 21 is the most of any player.

Antoine Semenyo (c), Manchester City, £8.2m – Nottingham Forest (h)

In the same bracket as Fernandes is Semenyo. Keeps starting, keeps scoring.

Every Manchester City player carries a slight question mark as they enter a period that also involves Newcastle away in the FA Cup, two legs against Real Madrid and the Carabao Cup final against Arsenal.

But it’s also impossible to second-guess Pep Roulette so start Semenyo with confidence – Fernandes is my vice-captain if he doesn’t play.

Harry Wilson, Fulham, £6m – West Ham (h)

Wilson’s now the fourth-highest-scoring midfielder and at just £6m still.

He takes on West Ham this week, who just conceded five goals at Liverpool, and you’ll want to eye up Burnley at home in gameweek 31 too.

Marcus Tavernier, Bournemouth, £5.3m – Brentford (h)

Another player returning from gameweek 28’s team and, at this price, how can you resist?

A team-high four shots last week and a big chance created, Tavernier ended up with bonus points and an assist.

He has a lot of routes to points for a £5.3m midfielder and faces a Brentford side that conceded three – and should possibly have been more – at Burnley.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Everton, £5m – Burnley (h)

KDH is the forgotten budget gem after his long injury, but he’s got three returns in four games and is always a good shout for defensive contribution points.

Hugo Ekitike, Liverpool, £9m – Wolves (a)

Since week 22, no striker has had more shots than Ekitike’s 23.

Only Joao Pedro is ahead of him for big chances – 10 to nine – and he has the third-highest xG.

In that time, the Frenchman has had five blanks but it feels like he has left points on the table, and last week’s 15-pointer was an example of it all coming right.

Give him another chance away to Wolves.

Thierno Barry, Everton, £5.7m – Burnley (h)

Everton’s match-winner last week hopefully regains his starting sport for a juicy home fixture against Burnley.

Jordan Pickford, Everton, keeper, £5.6m – Burnley (h)

Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Leeds, striker, £5.7m – Sunderland (h)

James Hill, Bournemouth, defender, £4.1m – Brentford (h)

Calvin Bassey, Fulham, defender, £4.4m – West Ham (h)

Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson is a target for Inter Milan and Juventus, Manchester United want Newcastle‘s Bruno Guimaraes, Tottenham players face relegation wage cut.

Inter Milan are interested in Liverpool‘s Brazil goalkeeper Alisson, 33, with Juventus also keen. (La Repubblica – subscription required – in Italian)

Manchester United want Newcastle captain Bruno Guimaraes, 28, to replace midfielder Casemiro this summer – with the 34-year-old United midfielder endorsing his Brazil team-mate. (AS)

Tottenham players are facing mandatory wage cuts if the club are relegated from the Premier League into the Championship. (The Athletic – subscription required)

Spurs defender Micky van de Ven is not interested in extending his contract with the under-performing club with Barcelona and Real Madrid monitoring the Netherlands international, 24, for a summer move. (Give Me Sport)

Bayern Munich will turn their attentions to a new contract for 32-year-old England striker Harry Kane after France defender Dayot Upamecano, 27, signed a new deal last month. (Fabrizio Romano)

Liverpool, Arsenal and Barcelona are all monitoring Inter Milan’s 26-year-old Italy defender Alessandro Bastoni. (Caughtoffside)

Arsenal are leading the race to sign Bayern Munich’s Leon Goretzka when his contract expires this summer with the 31-year-old Germany midfielder keen to play in the Premier League despite interest from Inter Milan, Juventus and AC Milan. (Christian Falk via Bayern Insider)

Barcelona are ready to pay Manchester United the fee they want to turn 28-year-old England forward Marcus Rashford’s loan move into a permanent one. (Mirror)

Manchester City are keen on re-signing Lukas Nmecha from Borussia Dortmund. The 25-year-old was released by City five years ago without making a Premier League appearance but is wanted back by Pep Guardiola. (Goal)

Manchester United have added Borussia Dortmund boss Niko Kovac, 54, to their shortlist for their next managerial appointment. (Football Insider)

Real Madrid have the upper hand in the race to sign Germany defender Nico Schlotterbeck, 26, from Borussia Dortmund due to their friendly relationship with the Bundesliga club. (AS – in Spanish)

Former British and Irish Lions wing Anthony Watson says he cheated a head-injury assessment to get back on the pitch after Sonny Bill Williams’ infamous high tackle in the second Test of the 2017 series in New Zealand.

Williams was shown a 25th-minute red card after driving a straight shoulder into Watson’s head as the wing gathered a loose ball and attempted to run upfield.

Watson says he had previously committed a series of five words to memory to help him pass a part of the head-injury assessment when players are tested on their recall.

“I knew the impact was big and as I got in to do the protocol I was starting to feel a bit hazy,” Watson recalled in an interview with a new BBC documentary – Ben Youngs Investigates: How Safe Is Rugby?

“I just want to caveat this by saying that I love the medical staff there at the Lions and they had no idea I was doing this.

“At that stage I knew the protocols – they give you five words to remember so it is ‘elbow-apple-carpet-saddle-bubble’. That is what I had.

Watson had appeared unsteady in the aftermath of the collision, failing in an initial attempt to stand from a kneeling position.

Jack Nowell replaced Watson as he was assessed for signs of concussion, but six minutes later, Watson jogged back on to the pitch and proceeded to play the remainder of the Lions’ 24-21 win.

Watson also played 72 minutes of the drawn series decider at Eden Park seven days later.

The recall element of the head injury assessment has since changed.

Instead of being asked to recall a set list of five words, with results compared to a baseline set when unimpaired at the start of the season, a random sequence is generated from a bank of 20 different words for each assessment.

Players are penalised for incorrect answers, meaning learning and repeating all 20 would result in a fail.

Watson’s fellow England wing Jonny May admitted in 2019 that, after a head knock in a game against Wales, he had tried, and failed, to pass the same part of the test by repeating words.

Players are also tested on their balance and orientation, and have to pass all elements of the assessment to return to play.

Independent doctors also review video replays and data from smart mouthguards to review collisions. In rare cases they can overrule the results of an assessment if they still have concerns about a player’s performance in it or there was an error in administering it.

Watson, 32, who retired from rugby in January 2025 after failing to recover sufficiently from a back injury, says he has no regrets about prioritising that match over his health.

“That night I had a pretty mental headache,” he added

“But if I could go back to then I wouldn’t do anything different – it was the second Lions Test. If I report a concussion there, I might rule myself out for next week and then wait four years to potentially do it again.”

On last summer’s Lions tour to Australia, Garry Ringrose made a different choice.

The Ireland centre had been passed fit to play in the second Test against the Wallabies but withdrew himself from the match after feeling the recurrence of concussion symptoms from an incident two weeks before.

“Fair play to him,” said Watson of Ringrose ruling himself out of action.

“It is hard to say, ‘No I can’t play because I have a concussion’ because no-one can see it – it is not visible.”

Watson also believes that today’s players could not circumvent testing as he did.

“It is too hard to fudge it now and I don’t think it is possible,” he added.

“I don’t think so [that there is a problem with player safety in rugby].