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Phil Hay shares tweet about Stuart Dallas after injury in Leeds United loss v Everton
Phil Hay admits that Stuart Dallas is not “indestructible” after the Leeds United mainstay went off injured just nine minutes into the 3-0 defeat at Everton on Saturday.
It remains to be seen what Dallas’ injury is and how long the 30-year-old will be sidelined for but after the game, Daniel James told LUTV, via LeedsLive, that it was a “massive blow” for the Northern Irishman to be substituted off so early.
Writing via his personal Twitter account, The Athletic journalist Hay pointed out that if Dallas is missing against Manchester United next week, it’ll be the first time in a long time he’s sat out of a game.
“You think of Dallas as indestructible but in this of all seasons, injury seems to be finding almost everyone,” said Hay on Saturday.
Writing again today (Sunday, 13 February), the ex-Yorkshire Evening Post journalist added: “As a total aside, if injury keeps Stuart Dallas out of Man Utd next Sunday it’ll be the first league game he’s missed for non-promotion-celebration reasons since the 2018-19 season. Of the last 107 fixtures, he’s started 106. An extraordinary shift.”
Please, don’t be out for long
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Dallas is invaluable and if there’s one player who we really cannot afford to have injured right now, it’s him.
The former Brentford ace can play almost anywhere and has been filling in as a left-back recently while Junior Firpo is out.
While Firpo is expected to return from injury against Manchester United next week, it’ll be a huge blow to be without Dallas, who’d have no doubt slotted into the midfield.
Dallas can also play at right-back if Luke Ayling is unavailable or is needed in the centre-half role while the Northern Ireland international is also an adept winger on either side of the pitch.
If he’s out for any amount of time, it’ll be a struggle for Leeds and yet again, we find ourselves pointing at Bielsa’s insistence upon having a small squad that he pushes to the absolute limits.
Why are we operating with a squad that has just one senior left-back? Why are we operating with a squad that has just one senior right-back? Why are we relying so heavily upon Dallas to fill in areas where he’s not as effective as when he’s in the midfield?
People can keep on saying that Bielsa shouldn’t be questioned, but we’re only six points clear of the relegation zone and by the end of February, we could be in the bottom three if results go against us.
In other Leeds United news, Bielsa could cost himself his job at Leeds over what he’s done with this player.