Leeds United ready to assess emergency transfer solution after ‘negative surprise’ injury blow
Daniel Farke, the manager of Leeds United, wants the team to keep an eye on possible transfer solutions in case
there is a “negative surprise” at Thorp Arch this week.
Joel Piroe, the squad’s top scorer, returned for team training ahead of Sunday’s Yorkshire derby against Sheffield
Wednesday, which was welcome news from Farke’s pregame press conference.
“Overall it was beneficial to have a few days to calm the load down after the festive period and FA Cup,” Farke stated.
“We are now once more concentrating on the Championship. Although Patrick is making some headway in his
rehabilitation, January will still be missed. Joel has returned to team training, completely recovered and ready to go.
Every other player handled the load quite well.
“The bad news is that centre-back Pascal Struijk has sustained a hamstring problem and will miss three weeks, in the
best case scenario.
“Just one bad news with Pascal Struijk, he reported yesterday a little awareness in his hamstring, he had a scan and
sadly it’s a muscle injury,” said Farke.
“He will likely miss January and the first part of February due to his three-week absence. There’s a risk that the
muscle tendon is affected, but it’s hard to tell at this time. We can only evaluate it when the fluid in the muscle has
subsided. Next week, we can rescan him.
Leeds will watch who they might be able to bring in if necessary because Farke might be without Struijk for months if
the muscle also affects the tendon.”It would be significantly longer in rehab for him, we would not speak about three
weeks but three months,” the German replied.
“We’re cautiously optimistic right now; hopefully, there are just three games left. For us, it’s a major negative
surprise and essentially bad news. Our plans would be severely impacted if he were to be absent for an extended
period of time.
“Having Pascal back available would be fantastic; he is our vice captain and our pillar of support. He is good at both
attacking and defending set pieces, which is why we enjoyed so many clean sheets with him. When he’s on the pitch,
we play better defence. Yes, I am a little concerned, and we need to exercise some caution when it comes to the
strategy.
“I stated that we would be vigilant until the end of the transfer window if there was any business that could help us,
and the second item is whether a major player has suffered a significant injury. Reaction is required in the event of
an emergency. We must certainly take a close look at it. Months make things a little more difficult. Last season, I had
a similar scenario and timing in mind. He sustained an injury and was given a three-week diagnosis, which
prevented him from playing any further games for us. It’s critical that we consider our choices in case next week
brings a bad surprise.”
Read more news on https://sportupdates.co.uk/
Leave a Reply