Daniel Feliciano

Wed 13 July 2022 9:10, UK

Jesse Marsch has confirmed that Junior Firpo will be out for eight weeks with an injury picked up in pre-season and will miss the start of Leeds United’s Premier League season.

Firpo suffered the injury during the friendly with Blackpool last week and will be out for the start of the campaign now, with the boss hopeful that he could return sooner than the initial prognosis.

However Marsch, as quoted by Yorkshire Evening Post, has admitted that he has held talks with director of football Victor Orta over new signings including a left-back and says the club will “definitely” sign a striker.

“He’s most likely out eight weeks,” he said. “We’re hopeful that it’s a little bit faster because Junior healed really, really quickly last time after the MCL injury.

“We’re looking very closely at Leif Davis and we think he’s done really well. We have also other solutions, like Pascal and potentially Jack [Harrison].

“But in the whole process, we were always evaluating what we would need at that position. So obviously this highlights that a little bit more clearly. And we have time, we have time.

“When it comes to recruitment, I believe that that Victor Orta and Gaby Ruiz do an incredible job of looking around the world and understanding what the demands are of the style of football that the manager wants to play and then providing really good possibilities as to what what those players could be and what fits could be. So yeah, I mean, we’ve had those discussions.

“It’s been a fun transfer time because we’re so aligned. I think the work that we’ve done as a club, the conversations we’ve had with potential players to come to Leeds United, they’ve all been really well organised, really clear.

“Victor is an incredible recruiter in terms of the presentations he puts together for potential players and prospective people to be in our club. But we know we have still more to do and I think we have the flexibility to get some still important players done.

“We’re hopeful on several [striker] targets and we have our priorities and the conversations have been really good.

“So we definitely are going to find one more striker and I think that’ll be important. And then I believe that, with also the consideration at left-back, I feel like once we get a striker we feel like we’ll have a really sound, strong group.”

Massive

Leeds’ transfer window has been absolutely sensational so far on all fronts, with plenty of excellent incomings but also some solid outgoings too.

But to hear that the club’s business isn’t done yet is excellent news for fans, who are hoping to avoid another rollercoaster of a season after just about avoiding relegation in the 2021/22 season.

Marsch seems to have the same ideas as fans too about what areas need bolstering and by naming left-back and striker as the priorities for the rest of the window, it’s clear the club are in the right direction.

As for Firpo, his injury woes continue and the team have a small problem at left-back for now. With Stuart Dallas also injured for a while, that leaves right-back Cody Drameh as the only realistic option to fill in at left-back.

Leif Davis was name-dropped, but it seems unlikely that he will be in the first-team picture and a move to Ipswich is seemingly lined up already. That could change with news of the injury, but what’s needed is clear and the club are on it.

In other Leeds news, one first-team ace is waiting on his loan exit to be granted at Thorp Arch