Speaking to the media in this morning’s pre-Wolves press conference, Leeds United head coach Jesse Marsch has been touching on the injuries within the squad; highlighting both potential absentees and possible returnees in tomorrows fixture at Molineux.
The stand out injury news is the potential return of club captain Liam Cooper and England international Kalvin Phillips, both of whom have been sidelined for the entirety of 2022 following serious injuries. Marsch has confirmed that both players have been back in full training this week, and that the duo will be in contention to travel to Wolves tomorrow evening.
Without giving too much away on his team selection, Marsch stated that, “It’s a big boost for them both personally as well as positive momentum for our group. We’ll see how many minutes they’ll get tomorrow.”
“Kalvin had a really strong training session yesterday, as did Liam (Cooper). I’m excited to get him on the pitch, but we’ll make a plan for tomorrow taking their return into consideration and stick to it.”
Similar to the return of Patrick Bamford, Marsch doesn’t want to throw both Phillips and Cooper straight back into the starting eleven without the pair fully recovering from their injuries, with the potential of an early return giving either player yet another set back in a crucial stage of Leeds’ season.
Staying with injuries, the American also confirmed the severity of Junior Firpo’s problem sustained against Aston Villa last week, with Marsch expecting the former Barcelona man to be absent for between 3 – 5 weeks after suffering a MCL injury.
Rodrigo has missed some training this week following a knock in Sunday’s win over Norwich City, something which forced the 31 year old to be substituted in the second half, and the Spaniard will be assessed in this afternoon’s training session.
Joe Gelhardt is another who could potentially miss the trip to Wolves, with Marsch stating that the youngster has a slight back injury, something which prevented him playing in Leeds’ under 23 match against Manchester United on Tuesday, and like Rodrigo will be assessed before tomorrow.
Both Lewis Bate and Jamie Shackleton sustained injuries during Leeds’ under 23 win over Manchester United mid week that will rule them out of the trip, and Tyler Roberts has also undergone successful surgery and has entered the rehabilitation stage of his recovery,
18 year old Leo Hjelde is set to return to training next week following surgery on an injury sustained in Leeds’ 3-0 loss to Everton at Goodison Park.
