Steve Clarke update suggests Liam Cooper will miss Leeds clash v Fulham
Leeds United defender Liam Cooper is set to miss the Premier League clash against Fulham on Friday evening.
After missing out on the Scotland international squad, Steve Clarke confirmed that the Whites skipper will be ruled out for the first two games of the break.
Scotland entertain Austria, Israel and the Faroe Islands in World Cup qualifiers, with the third of those games on the final day of March at Hampden Park.
Speaking to Sky Sports on Tuesday afternoon, Clarke confirmed that Cooper wouldn’t be available until the end of March.
“He’s not available for the games,” he said via the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“I spoke to Liam. He could maybe have been available for the third game but it’s not going to happen. We had a good chat about it and decided to go with the ones I’ve picked.”
Ruled out.
If Cooper is missing for the first two games of the international break, it is all but confirmed that he will be absent at Craven Cottage on Friday.
The Scotsman was a surprise absentee from the squad against Chelsea over the weekend, with Marcelo Bielsa confirming that it was a sickness bug.
Leeds never share if it is COVID-19, but if there is a positive test, you have to isolate for 10 days, and from last Friday, that would make him available for the Scotland games.
Could there be another issue we aren’t aware of here?
Bielsa and the Whites could be hiding another separate injury by this so-called sickness, but at least it will only be the one game against Fulham that he should miss.
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