'Luckily' – Kalvin Phillips posts upbeat message after injury news, Leeds players respond

Leeds United midfielder Kalvin Phillips has been ruled out for up to six weeks with a shoulder injury sustained in the 1-0 defeat to Wolves on Monday night.

It's a huge blow for Leeds who are already struggling with injuries in the centre of defence.

Phillips posted an upbeat message on Instagram on Tuesday night and highlighted the one slight silver lining from the news – saying that "luckily" his injury won't require surgery.

That would have kept him out for a much longer period.

Phillips said, "Tough one to take but proud of our performance as a team. We dust ourselves down and go again. Unfortunately during last night's match I suffered a shoulder injury which will leave me out for a few weeks.

"Luckily I won’t be needing surgery and have already started my rehab so looking forward to getting back on the pitch as soon as possible."

Plenty of Leeds players lined up to send messages of support to Phillips, with Luke Ayling saying, "Little setback be back stronger brother."

Major blow

There's no sugarcoating this one for Leeds United fans who all know how important Kalvin Phillips is to Bielsa's side.

Leeds didn't sign a midfielder in the summer window and that's now looking like a mistake, although there would have been ample cover there if other injuries hadn't happened.

Robin Koch or Pascal Struijk would have been the players to step up but with Diego Llorente and possibly Liam Cooper out as well, they're needed in defence.

It's going to involve a reshuffle starting with the game against Aston Villa on Friday night and that's a real shame – we were looking forward to seeing Jack Grealish v Phillips in that one.

After Leeds' fast start in the Premier League, though, this is the first major challenge to Marcelo Bielsa.

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