Leeds United’s U21 boss Michael Skubala has told Leeds Live that Leo Hjelde picked up an injury during the win over Hertha Berlin in the Premier League International Cup, coming off prior to the hour mark.
Leeds secured all three points in their second game of the tournament, after a 2-0 win over Nice. Goals came from Keenan Carole, Lew Bate and Mateo Joseph – who is still being overlooked for the first team.
A comfortable 3-1 win for the 21’s against a Hertha side that included first-teamers. Hjelde started the match having been unavailable for Norwich, picking up an achilles problem while on Norway 21’s duty.
Farke spoke on Tuesday and confirmed that Hjelde is fit again after the achilles issue – though, a recall to the senior matchday squad was always unlikely, given he was missing from the last six league games.
But, on Tuesday night, Hjelde came off on 59 minutes. Skubala spoke after the 3-1 win over Hertha, and he reported the ex-Celtic man has suffered an impact injury – picking up a knock to his hip last night.
“We wanted to get him through some good minutes and he probably came off a little bit early. He got whacked in the hip, either a dead hip or just a little bit sore, so we didn’t want to risk it,” Skubala said.
“So we tried to get him off as soon as we could to look after him. The plan was to get him more minutes but he got injured, got a whack,” the Leeds Under-21 manager continued, as quoted by Leeds Live.
Leeds man Leo Hjelde picks up injury during 21’s win over Hertha
Hjelde has endured a difficult season. Starting against Cardiff but hauled off at half-time and failing to play a single minute since, in the League. Sam Byram has overtaken him as first choice on the left flank.
Stuart Dallas and Junior Firpo are closing in on a return from injury and that will only push Hjelde further down the pecking order. At centre-back, Pascal Struijk and Liam Cooper sit ahead of the Norwegian.
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