Leeds United have done reasonably well in dealing with the injuries to key players this season. Ethan Ampadu and Ilia Gruev succumbed to injuries in October, which led to a mini midfield crisis. However, Joe Rothwell and Ao Tanaka stepped up to ensure they didn’t miss the duo. Junior Firpo’s hamstring problem in December was hardly felt as Sam Byram did a solid job to replace him and Pascal Struijk’s hamstring injury last month was covered by Ampadu dropping into defence with Leeds keeping five clean sheets on the trot in the Championship. However, the team have suffered another blow as a defender is now set to be out until April due to a persisting injury issue.
The Whites sit at the summit of the Championship table after 31 games and are the top favourites to earn automatic promotion to the Premier League at the end of the season.
Leeds United have been the most consistent side in the league and have improved with each passing month but there have been challenges, which includes key players missing a chunk of games at various points of the campaign.
Players such as Ampadu, Gruev and Struijk have missed a large chunk of games and Patrick Bamford has again struggled with his fitness this season.
The strength of the Leeds squad is set to get further examined in the coming months after it emerged that Max Wober will be out until April due to the knee issues he has been dealing with all season.
The Leeds United star ruled out until the end of March
Wober’s problems this season started in the first international break in September when he picked up a knee injury while playing for his national team Austria.
He underwent knee surgery to sort out the issue and was missing in action until the end of October as he recovered and rehabilitated on the sidelines.
The Austrian was again sidelined for a while in December and Daniel Farke has revealed that the defended has suffered another setback and will undergo a knee operation again.
The Leeds boss conceded that the defender will definitely not return before the international break in March and indicated that the current timeline doesn’t see him getting back to action until April.
“Bad news, sadly, with Max Wober. He has this ongoing knee problem and another setback. He will need another surgery”, Farke said in a press conference.
“We’ll do this as quickly as possible and he will definitely be out until the next international break.
“We expect him just to be available after the next international break because during this week, already, we’ll have this surgery and then he’s out for around six weeks. Until the end of March, he’s not available for us.”
Max Wober is having one of those seasons
The Austrian spent last season on loan at Borussia Monchengladbach but decided to stay at Leeds when he returned last summer from Germany.
Wober was not getting any game time at the start of the season but never agitated for a move and insisted that his time would come at the right moment.
He played a few games at left-back when Firpo was injured and looked good but the defender has had a frustrating campaign until now.
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A persistent knee issue bogged him down since the early part of the season and he never really got an opportunity to stake a claim for a regular place in the team due to his injury problems.
With him now out until April, it will be harder to get into the team once he returns as at the business end of the season, Farke is unlikely to experiment.
Wober might become a part of the squad that get Leeds back up to the Premier League but it seems he is unlikely to play a major role in it.
