UPDATE: Erling Haaland out until January with muscle tear

Borussia Dortmund will go into the highlight match of its Champions League group stage without its talismanic striker Erling Haaland. The Norwegian suffered an unspecified injury in training and has been ruled out of the game. Sport Bild’s Sven Westerschulze reports the following:

Bitter for BVB: according to Bild and Sport Bild’s information, Erling Haaland is out tonight. The striker injured himself in training and is not in the squad for #BVBLazio. More soon at Bild.de.

Bild states that BVB suspects a muscle tear.

Haaland indeed is not in the squad that was just announced to face Lazio at the Westfalenstadium:

Lucien Favre will instead have to rely on Thorgan Hazard and Giovanni Reyna alongside Marco Reus, with Jude Bellingham in midfield behind them, to break down Lazio without a traditional striker up front.

The good news for Dortmund is that they still remain a point ahead of Lazio at the top of the group. A draw would maintain that lead.

Update: Haaland out until January

Things have gone from bad to worse: Lucien Favre told Sky that “Erling Haaland will not be able to play again until January.” BVB will thus be without their top-goalscorer for the remaining fixtures this month.

BVB has a tight schedule until the end of 2020. After Lazio at home today, the remaining fixtures are: Frankfurt (A), Zenit (A), Stuttgart (H), Bremen (A), Union (A), and Braunschweig (A, second round of the DFB-Pokal).