Mateo Joseph ‘hurt by Leeds United teammate’ in unseen moment
Leeds United had a disappointing afternoon away at QPR on Saturday and Mateo Joseph arguably came off worse than anyone.
Leeds’ poor record in London continued as, despite coming back from 2-0 down, Daniel Farke’s men had to settle for a point.
Although Joel Piroe was not having the desired effect at the top end of the pitch, Farke did not bring Joseph on throughout the afternoon and he had to settle for warming the bench.
Joseph involved in unseen moment ahead of QPR game
Although the striker spent the start of the season battling with Piroe for the number one spot in the team as striker, Piroe has secured that place by scoring 15 goals and contributing six assists in 38 matches.
Joseph, on the other hand, has three goals and three assists in 36 Championship appearances. However, he has only made the starting line-up on 11 occasions.
| Player | Goals | Assists |
| Joel Piroe | 15 | 6 |
| Mateo Joseph | 3 | 3 |
Although he never made it onto the pitch, Joseph managed to pick up an injury while doing a warm-up exercise with his teammates.
According to Graham Smyth in the Yorkshire Evening Post (16 March), in an off-camera moment, Joseph firstly stuck out a foot to stop a pass in the exercise with the other substitutes before limping away because it bent his foot back.
Just minutes later, the striker then took a ball in the “unmentionables”, with Smyth claiming he was left doubled over for a lengthy period before rejoining his teammates in the exercise.
On a day when his side also failed to capitalise on their spot at the top of the table, it was an afternoon to forget for Joseph all in all, although thankfully the injury wasn’t anything serious.
Leeds United need to raise their standards again
After beating Millwall at Elland Road on Wednesday (12 March), Leeds would have hoped they were back on track as they look for promotion to the Premier League.
However, dropping points again against QPR was certainly not in the plans and leaves the top-two battle wide open.
With Burnley also winning this weekend, it remains as tight as ever at the top of the Championship table and the race looks like it could go right down to the wire.
There have been plenty of jibes about Leeds imploding again, but Farke needs to make sure his side aren’t listening to the outside noise and instead are performing at their best levels every week.