Brenden Aaronson, Noah Okafor, Ao Tanaka and Gabriel Gudmundsson are Leeds United’s representatives in international football’s showpiece even this summer.
Leeds fans will be tuning in to not only keep tabs on England’s progress in the World Cup but also to watch a few of their stars grace the world stage in the coming weeks.
Playing in the World Cup for your national team is a big dream for every player, and a few of the Leeds stars are set to get that opportunity in North America.
However, the World Cup dreams of one star are in serious jeopardy as a mysterious illness has plagued him just ahead of the World Cup’s opening game.
Gabriel Gudmundsson is still not training with Sweden
The Leeds United defender missed the last few weeks of the season due to an injury. But he made full use of the break to prepare for Sweden’s World Cup campaign.
He returned to action in Sweden’s 2-2 friendly draw against Greece last week. He was feeling fit and ready to take part in the national team’s group fixtures.
However, since the weekend, the defender has been locked up in his hotel due to an illness and has not been training with the Sweden squad.
Sweden have confirmed that Gudmundsson is still recovering in the hotel and is yet to return to training with the rest of the national team squad.
Their press officer, Petra Thoren, told Sportbladet: “Everyone is in training except Gabriel, who is still at the hotel. He is still in a bad state.
“I can’t answer that [whether he has been getting better]. I’m not the team’s doctor. We don’t go into the health of individual players.
“He keeps to himself like you do when you’re in a bad way.”
Thoren refused to discuss the details of the illness and said, “He has mild symptoms of illness. I won’t go into what it is.”
This would be heartbreaking for him
Gabriel Gudmundsson won over the Leeds fans with his quality and willingness to work hard for the team. He turned out to be one of the best signings the Whites made last summer.
His performances in the Premier League also helped establish him as Sweden’s first-choice left-back, and he was widely expected to start for the national team at the World Cup.
Sweden will play their opening game against Tunisia on Sunday, and Gudmundsson still has a couple of days to get fit.
However, his injury absence in May, coupled with the illness, means it’s hard to see how he would be fit to feature in a couple of days.
