YEP journalist shares what sources suggest about JKA future at Leeds amid injury blow
Jean-Kevin Augustin may still have a future at Leeds United despite him suffering yet another setback, according to Yorkshire Evening Post journalist Graham Smyth.
Writing on the Yorkshire Post website, Smyth reported that Augustin, 22, was signed on loan from RB Leipzig in January with the view to a permanent move in the summer should Leeds win promotion.
However Augustin’s played just three times as a substitute since his January switch and has been hit with hamstring injuries either side of the coronavirus-enforced suspension of the Championship season.
Although he might have to return to France to rehabilitate if his new injury keeps him sidelined for over a month, the door has not closed on a permanent switch to Elland Road.
Smyth says that sources have suggested a permanent deal could still go through, even though Augustin has barely had any chance to impress in what has been an audition-like loan spell in West Yorkshire.
Leeds will no doubt be spending a lot of money on Augustin if they do strike a permanent deal so it would have been good to see how he would do beforehand.
But the Whites might not get that opportunity now and on the evidence we’ve seen so far, the club would be signing a determined, yet injury-prone, forward who has played just a handful of minutes in the space of six months.
It could be a risky deal but one that we would still like to see go ahead.
Leeds should be able to afford Augustin if they win promotion to the Premier League and Bielsa clearly sees enough in the Frenchman to have wanted to sign him in the first place and work so hard to get him up to speed during lockdown.
We trust Bielsa’s decision on the players who are already at the club. It’s not as though anyone’s got worse under his charge.
In other Leeds United news, the EFL have confirmed their latest testing results.