Is Erling Haaland injured? Norway star bizarrely replaced vs England in World Cup quarter-final

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The Independent

11 July 2026

Viewers were left stunned by

Norway

manager Stale Solbakken’s decision to substitute star striker

Erling Haaland

in extra time of their

World Cup

quarter-final with

England

, sparking injury fears.

Haaland has been at the heart of Norway’s impressive run at their first

since 1998, scoring seven goals - including two in their sublime last-16 win over Brazil - to take the Scandinavian side to the last-eight.

But with

needing his goalscoring heroics more than ever as they trailed 2-1 to

, Haaland was bizarrely substituted at half-time of extra time by Solbakken.

Manchester

City

frontman Haaland is Norway’s most obvious, prolific scoring threat, leading pundits to speculate that the 25-year-old must be hurt.

Erling Haaland watches on after being substituted against

(AP)

He was replaced by Crystal Palace striker

Jorgen Strand Larsen

, who had battled illness the week prior to be fit for the clash in Miami.

“It has to be an injury,”

Alan Shearer

told BBC Sport. “There is no way you take Haaland off if you are in desperate need of a goal.”

Former

goalkeeper

Paul Robinson

added: “It must be fatigue for

because we have not seen him go down with an injury and it's not a decision the manager would want to make.”

Solbakken will be expected to provide an update on why he substituted Haaland after the match.

Haaland did not score against

, with it being the first

knockout match in which he failed to find the net.

His actions did, however, lead to

Norway having a goal chalked off,

with his push in the back of Elliot Anderson leading to Torbjorn Heggem’s second-half strike being ruled out by VAR.

That would have put

in front after Andreas Schjelderup had his 36th-minute opener cancelled out by Jude Bellingham just before the break.

The game instead remained level for the rest of normal time before

took the front through Bellingham three minutes into extra time.

PREVIEW: England look to stop Haaland and reach final World Cup four against Norway

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