Daniel Farke is not expecting Junior Firpo to play any matches for Leeds United’s U21s before returning to first team action.
Farke was speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of tomorrow night’s trip to Stoke City, where he provided a new update on Firpo’s recovery from injury.
Firpo is still yet to be seen in a single matchday squad under Farke after picking up an injury in pre-season before Leeds‘ first friendly of the summer against Manchester United.
He then made a brief return to training last month before picking up another injury problem that has continued to keep him out of action alongside Djed Spence and Stuart Dallas.
Under both Marcelo Bielsa and Jesse Marsch, Leeds regularly handed minutes to senior players in the U21s in order to build match sharpness, though it does not appear as if Farke will adopt the same tactic.
Farke says Firpo won’t play for Leeds’ U21s
Farke says that none of the long-term injured players will be featuring in the U21s with Firpo still in need of two weeks of full training before he is considered for selection.
He said: “No, for Junior Firpo for example he needs a couple of weeks of full team training. It would be too early to send him out. Also Stuart, first of all he has to join us in team training, needs full training, this will last several weeks.
“Also Djed Spence, still not in team training. So no. Perhaps a few younger players who haven’t made the squad will get some minutes. Would make sense for them but for the long-term injuries, no.”
With the amount of matches that are played in the Championship it would not make much sense to play him in the U21s before bringing him back into the first team fold.
Particularly after the November international break, it is pretty much midweek and weekend matches all the way beyond Christmas, and so there will be plenty of time to ease him back in.
It would look like an unwise decision to hand him U21s minutes if he was then to pick up another injury.
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