Phil Hay: Raphinha will be home ahead of Leeds clash v Southampton
Phil Hay has shared that Leeds United winger Raphinha should be back home ahead of the trip to Southampton this afternoon.
The Brazilian star was guiding his country to victory a little more than 24 hours ago against Uruguay and faced a race back to the United Kingdom for today’s fixture.
Raphinha is available to play, but Marcelo Bielsa insisted that if fatigue would clearly cause injury, he wouldn’t be risk – but it looks as though he will be there giving him a choice to make.
Writing in his matchday discussion for The Athletic this morning, Hay shared that the Brazilian star will be home by now.
“As for Raphinha…he’ll be home by now but the decision on whether he plays is going to come down to how he feels and what Bielsa thinks,” he wrote. “A hard one to call.
“I’m interested in your thoughts on Raphinha. Would you risk him? Normally I’d say no chance but he’s been on fire in Brazil and because of that, it’s far more of a temptation to tap into that.
“But no doubt that fatigue could leave him at risk of injury.”
Easy call.
There are certain players that you simply have to play when they are fit, and Leeds definitely have two of them – Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips.
Bielsa may have been cautious with his response to the questions on his latest international star, but he will know that if he has the winger with him at St Mary’s this afternoon – he has to start him.
Raphinha will want to play too, he has that attitude about him where he will never stop running for the travelling fans and he need to get three points every single week.
Hay suggests that the winger will be home, and if he met the team at the hotel last night (providing they travelled then, it is likely) he will have had time to get a real good sleep in before the game later today.
That doesn’t make him 100%, but we have a sneaky feeling that even a Raphinha running on 75% would be enough to win all three points today.
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