David Woods

Mon 9 March 2020 12:32, UK

Tyler Roberts has struggled for fitness since arriving at Leeds United but has started to show glimpses of being back to his best. 

The full extent of his issues were revealed recently in a brilliant piece in the Athletic.

According to Phil Hay, Roberts “suffered an infection which, without immediate and effective surgery, would have put his career at risk” last summer.

He had three operations which put paid to his pre-season and he sat out the first six games before being introduced back to the bench.

Following the article, one Leeds fan asked on Twitter: “Has everything completely cleared up with it? No chance of a re-occurrence?”

Hay replied positively saying, “Yes, all clear after the infection. Caught it with antibiotics and the right treatment”.

This is good news for Roberts and for Leeds and the hope will be that he gets a proper run at the first-team as the Premier League beckons.

Having his career threatened at the age of 21 mist have been a very scary experience.

Roberts is a versatile attacker and can play as the second striker, on the wings or up-front for Leeds – as he proved when he scored two off the bench against Hull.

He’s still only 21-years-old as well and there’s hope that he can go on and produce what was hoped from him when he signed for £2.5m in January 2018.

Since then he’s made 45 appearances for Leeds, scoring six goals and adding six assists.

His first against Hull will go down as one of the goals of the season after he smartly finished a sweeping move that began down by Leeds corner flag.

Stats showed what an impact he made in the game against Hull, with 20 touches (three inside the box) and two goals in just 23 minutes.

He’ll have to be patient, though. Marcelo Bielsa isn’t budging on Patrick Bamford and it means that, for the rest of this season at least, Roberts will have to settle for making an impact off the bench.

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