Daniel Farke has issued an update on his returning internationals ahead of Leeds United’s clash with Sheffield United.
Leeds are set to host the Blades under the Elland Road lights on Friday night but have had their preparation impacted by the international break.
Six members of Farke’s squad were in action for their respective countries over the last 24 hours, half of which were practically on the other side of the world.
Ao Tanaka played 90 minutes in Japan’s 1-1 draw with Australia, while Junior Firpo did the same for the Dominican Republic over in Bermuda.
Meanwhile, Brenden Aaronson also got a full game for the USA away at Mexico, a game which did not finish until the early hours of this morning.
Farke issues Aaronson fitness update ahead of Leeds return
At the very earliest, Firpo and Tanaka will report back at Thorp Arch today, but it may well be a different story for Aaronson.
At the time of writing, Aaronson will still be in the process of travelling home, meaning the only session he could possibly have before Friday is a recovery one tomorrow.
After Saturday night’s win over Panama, several members of the USA squad were actually allowed to report back to their respective clubs early.
Unfortunately, Aaronson was not one of them, despite the fact he is the only one back in club action on Friday night.
In his pre-match press conference, Farke was asked about whether he was frustrated at USA’s usage of Aaronson.
However, Farke instead opted to praise Aaronson’s physical level, which he believes will ensure he is available to play in some capacity against Sheffield United.
He said: “Of course I would have wished that he [Aaronson] did not play 90 minutes. But what can we do, we adapt to the situation. It’s the right of the national country to play him as much as they want.
“For Mauricio [Pochettino] it’s his first international break, although it was just a friendly it was an important game they wanted to win. It’s also a sign of trust that we’ve done something right and Brenden has done something right that he wanted him to play the whole 93 minutes.
“I also totally understand every manager in his first days in charge to be there with the best possible results. A bit selfish for us, I would have wished less minutes and less load. The good thing with Brenden is he’s on a top fitness level and pretty sure we can involve him on Friday.
“The question is how long. We make a late decision in these terms once he’s back and we’ve assessed him. No accusations, every coach wants to be successful. More credit to our work that he has this role, it says a lot about his development.”
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Farke shares how many Leeds have trained with today
While Farke seems confident the Aaronson will be involved in some capacity against the Blades, his training sessions have been down to the barebones.
Several Leeds players are still on their way back from international duty after matches in the last 24 hours, meaning they won’t be able to train until tomorrow at the earliest, if at all.
As such, Farke says Leeds have barely been able to train with more than 11 players today, just over 48 hours before kick-off at Elland Road.
He said: “Trained with 14 or 15 players today. Need the rest of them to come back, but no new injury news yet. Need to assess them after the travel and their time zones.”
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