Junior Firpo, Sam Byram and Jamie Shackleton out – Early Leeds United team news v Coventry City
Leeds United are not expected to be able to welcome Junior Firpo, Sam Byram or Jamie Shackleton back from injury against Coventry City, according to the Yorkshire Evening Post.
All three players missed the midweek defeat to Sunderland at the Stadium of Light through injury, with Daniel Farke confirming that Byram is unlikely to return before the new year.
But the extent of Shackleton’s injury is still unclear while Firpo may return to training from a hamstring problem in the coming days, but this game is expected to come too soon.
“Junior Firpo, Sam Byram and Jamie Shackleton – all of whom could have played left-back against the Black Cats – missed the midweek game and Farke is not expecting any of them back for Saturday’s Elland Road clash with Coventry,” they wrote.
Blow
Djed Spence had a decent showing in his first start for the club out of position against Sunderland, but it’s clear how much we missed having someone more familiar in the role.
There was surely some hope that Shackleton would recover from his mystery glute injury in time for the weekend to offer that option, but Daniel Farke won’t get the joy of that will need to find a solution.
The likely option is that he goes with the same back-four as Sunderland and hopes the attack will perform to a better standard than they did during that defeat.
There is the chance that he shuffles Pascal Struijk across to left-back and brings in Liam Cooper or Charlie Cresswell to the central defensive position, which would allow Spence to go to right-back and give Archie Gray a well deserved rest.
Either way, at least the injuries aren’t being thrown at us at the last second and the manager has a chance to plan for it. We must win the game though, and Elland Road will be bouncing.
In other Leeds news, big-money ace could see loan deal terminated with early Elland Road return on the cards.