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 World Cup 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 Norway needing his goalscoring heroics more than ever as they trailed 2-1 to England, 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.
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 England goalkeeper Paul Robinson added: “It must be fatigue for Erling Haaland because we have not seen him go down with an injury and it's not a decision the manager would want to make.”
Solbakken confirmed after the match that he knew Haaland was “finished”, indicating his replacement was mainly down to him emptying the tank, but revealed that the striker also suffered a dead leg in the clash.
“It was not a tough decision to take him out,” Solbakken said. “He was finished. Maybe I should have taken him out 10 minutes before. ... He also got a dead leg in the second half, so that combined with the fatigue. He did everything he could.”
Haaland did not score against England, with it being the first World Cup 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 Norway 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 England took the front through Bellingham three minutes into extra time.
