Phil Hay shares Raphinha injury update, minor issue for Leeds United winger
Raphinha got away with a “minor ankle injury” when the Leeds United star was forced off against Wolves last week, according to Phil Hay.
The 24-year-old winger was forced off in the 1-1 draw at Elland Road and then had to sit out of Leeds’ Carabao Cup defeat at Arsenal on Tuesday night.
Norwich are up next for Leeds, who play at Carrow Road on Sunday and according to The Athletic journalist Hay, Raphinha should be available after the horror challenge from Romain Saiss caused his injury.
“Raphinha seems like he’s got away with what sounds like a fairly minor ankle injury,” Hay said on the latest episode of The Phil Hay Show podcast on The Athletic website.
“Bielsa’s pretty hopeful he’ll play at Norwich at the weekend but he did have to come off.
“I think the point about that challenge was that studs were up and Saiss was so far away from the ball, he ended up hitting behind him. I don’t think he was even booked for that challenge. He could have gone actually for a foul on Rodrigo later on in the game.”
Hay added: “It looks like Raphinha’s got away with a serious injury, which is good news for Leeds.”
Hopeless refereeing
Saiss should have been sent off twice on Saturday for ugly challenges on both Raphinha and Rodrigo.
Clearly, Wolves didn’t intend on playing a football match at the weekend and instead were more bothered about grabbing one goal and then doing everything they can to stop play.
Whether that was with their own play-acting or roughing up Leeds’ players, people in the media have been dissing Norwich lately for their poor start to the Premier League season when really, it’s teams like Wolves who need to be called out.
Thankfully, Raphinha’s leg wasn’t broken and it sounds as though he may have walked away from the challenge with a superficial injury.
With Norwich up next at Carrow Road, we really need the influential Brazil international available as he’s easily been our best player this season.
If Raphinha is out, we don’t see us winning – it’s as simple and as downheartening as that.
In other Leeds United news, this midfielder has admitted he’d like to quit Leeds at the end of the season.