Erling Haaland has started the season on fire by scoring 10 goals in nine games for Manchester City, but Enzo Maresca has admitted that his place in the starting XI isn't certain

Manchester City boss Enzo Maresca has admitted that he may be forced to drop Erling Haaland and give him some rest. Haaland, 26, has enjoyed a typically prolific start to the season, despite an unusually busy summer.

The striker fired Norway to the quarter-finals of the World Cup in what was his first major tournament appearance with his country. Haaland started all four of Norway's games during the recent international break, and national team manager Stale Solbakken confirmed that his No.9 was fatigued after substituting him during their fourth and final match.

Maresca acknowledges that Haaland needs time off to avoid injury, with City due to play Ipswich on Saturday and AEK Athens in the Champions League, also at home, next Tuesday. "At some point we probably need to give him rest, some days off," Maresca said in his pre-match press conference.

"We are thinking about this not just with Erling because we have players, unfortunately or fortunately, they are playing all the games with us and all the games with the international teams. Elliot [Anderson], Enzo [Fernandez], Marc [Guehi], Erling, Ruben [Dias]. So at some point we probably need to give them some rest."

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Haaland's double against Paris Saint-Germain in midweek put him on 10 goals in nine games for City this season. The Norwegian leads the Premier League scoring charts with six, one more than Chelsea's Joao Pedro.

City are top of the table with a 100 per cent record after six games. Victory over Ipswich would open up a six-point gap over defending champions Arsenal, who play on Sunday away to Nottingham Forest.

Maresca will have Phil Foden at his disposal following his red card against Manchester United prior to the international break. "Since his red card and the international break, it has been quite long, but he is training well and is very positive," the City boss added.

"We have so many games [coming up] so we will decide if he starts [on Saturday] or not. There is no doubt that he is going to give us something."

Ayyoub Bouaddi will be in contention to start against Ipswich after he impressed as a substitute on Wednesday. "I decided to go less physicality and more technical with Rayan [Cherki], but against these teams you need to be quite strong in the middle," Maresca explained.

"Bouaddi, Enzo and Elliot can for sure be a solution in the future. He is a fantastic player. When he is on the pitch, all the players around him improve. They are better players."