The Haaland push was a dumb move by him. He got baited

by BillyGoat , At Thanksgiving with Joe Bethersontin, Monday, July 13, 2026, 07:03 (8 days ago) @ Grantland

by the defender, and the defender timed his flop perfectly with Haaland's shove. If Haaland intended a 2-arm shove, then that's dumb and has got to be something that VAR is going to pick up every time. I think it's more likely he intended to "bang" like in the post in basketball, but when the defender offered zero resistance, it looked worse than it was. Either way, he's got to be smarter in such an important moment.

An injury is certainly possible. I don't know the soccer culture around such things. But in US pro sports, there would have been a postgame announcement of that fact -- if not some performative dugout therapy -- to protect your star's reputation.