Leeds United star Gabriel Gudmundsson faces cruel blow as Sweden absence explained

Leeds United full-back Gabriel Gudmundsson faces a race against time to be ready for Sweden's World Cup opener.

Gudmundsson missed Leeds' final four matches of the 2025-26 campaign through injury.

The 27-year-old recovered from that minor issue well in advance of the World Cup and played an hour of Sweden's 2-2 draw with Greece last week.

However, it has now been confirmed he is struggling with illness just five days out from the World Cup starting.

It could be a potentially cruel blow for the Leeds fan favourite, with Sweden's press officer providing an update on Tuesday.

Gabriel Gudmundsson struck down by illness

Gudmundsson's focus towards the end of the season just gone was to be fit in time for the World Cup.

With Leeds assured of safety with a few games to go, that was a smart choice to make.

Gudmundsson was set to start Sweden's World Cup opener against Tunisia in the early hours of Monday morning.

However, as confirmed by Sweden's media officer Petra Thoren, as per the Sweden Herald, illness kept Gudmundsson away from training on Tuesday.

Gudmundsson is said to be showing "mild symptoms", which is encouraging in terms of it not being anything worse.

However, with just five days to go until Sweden take on Tunisia, this is clearly not idea for the left-back.

Graham Potter will have both fingers crossed that Gudmundsson's symptoms do not get any worse and that he is able to train again soon.

Which other Leeds players are in World Cup action over next week?

Gudmundsson is one of four Leeds players who could represent their country on the biggest stage of them all this coming week.

Ao Tanaka (Japan), Noah Okafor (Switzerland) and Brenden Aaronson are also gearing up for their nations' opening clashes, against the Netherlands, Qatar and Paraguay respectively.

Sustaining an injury or going down with illness this close to a World Cup is always a sickener - quite literally.

However, there is still time for Gudmundsson to recover and build up his fitness.

It is far from ideal preparation given he's played just 60 minutes of football in a little over six weeks, but you would always back him to put in a proper shift regardless.