Phil Hay claims Leeds first-team star a ‘major doubt’ for Friday Night Football v Aston Villa
Leeds United lost 1-0 to Wolves on Monday night and also lost captain Liam Cooper to his groin strain during the warm-up.
There was no immediate news on the severity of his injury but Athletic journalist Phil Hay said from Elland Road after the game, “He’s going to be a major doubt for Friday.”
That could be an even bigger problem for Leeds if Pascal Struijk is also injured.
Diego Llorente has already been ruled out of the game and Struijk seemed to pick up a knock after he slipped in the build-up to the Raul Jimenez goal.
He was withdrawn in the 75th minute of the game at Elland Road on Monday night.
Stretched at the back
Leeds have much more depth in the centre of defence than they did last season but they’re already being stretched.
They’ve been unfortunate to lose Diego Llorente and Liam Cooper at the same time, but a further injury to Pascal Struijk would see the first crisis of the season emerge.
You have to imagine that Cooper will probably miss the game after obviously coming back too soon against Wolves.
We can’t afford to rush him back again and lose him for more games so we think Bielsa will have two options if Struijk is also out.
The first would see Oliver Casey coming in but we don’t think Bielsa would do that after the youngster was run ragged against Hull in the EFL Cup and taken off at half-time.
He wasn’t on the bench yesterday and that suggests Bielsa knows he’s not ready for the Premier League yet.
The more likely option would be to move Stuart Dallas onto the right with Luke Ayling playing as centre-back.
Gjanni Alioksi would come in and play on the left.
Kalvin Phillips could drop back to defence but there’s no natural stand-in for him in the holding midfield position.
Hopefully, one of Cooper or Struijk will be fit enough to play, with Ollie Watkins likely to be a real handful at Villa Park.
In other Leeds United News, ‘Leeds are a myth’ – Sky Sports pundit blasts Whites after 1-0 defeat v Wolves