Daniel Farke certainly dampened the joy a little in the aftermath of Leeds United’s glorious 3-1 win at Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United on Monday night.
Amid a night of unbridled joy in the Steel City – Leeds coming from behind to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat for the second Championship match in succession – there was still a post-match downpour to put the breaks on an Elland Road parade.
Leeds captain Ethan Ampadu needs surgery, Farke confirmed, and will now miss much of the run-in with his second ‘big injury’ of the campaign.
Fortunately, Leeds United’s squad is strong enough these days to survive the loss of one key player. Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk would walk into most if not all Championship XIs, after all.
Over in Bulgaria, meanwhile, the man Ampadu succeeded as Farke’s skipper over the summer is suffering with an injury set-back of his own.
Liam Cooper missed 23 games for club and country in his final two seasons as a Leeds player. And it appears that, at the age of 33, the veteran centre-back is no longer quite so durable as in his younger days.
Any readers out there entering their fourth decade will undoubtedly share Cooper’s, very literal, pain.
Former Leeds United captain Liam Cooper suffers injury blow in Bulgaria
Liam Cooper made an ‘exceptional’ impact after moving to Bulgaria over the summer.
A natural-born ‘leader’, to quote the club’s assistant manager Konstantin Mirchev, Cooper took over the captaincy almost immediately after putting pen to paper with CSKA Sofia.
Furthermore, their results with and without him during the first half of the campaign speak for themselves. A 46 per cent win rate with Cooper in the team, and a 30 per cent win rate without him.
CKSA, arguably the biggest club in Bulgaria and certainly the most successful, appeared in danger of relegation just one year after securing a creditable third-place finish. That was until Cooper made his mark, an eight-game unbeaten run lifting them out of the drop zone and into the relative comfort of mid-table.
Though whether CSKA can maintain that recent turnaround – or whether they slip back towards the mire – may depend on how quickly Cooper can recover from an injury which has kept him out of action since before the turn of the year.
In what Bulgarian publication Gol describe as a ‘huge problem’, Cooper is still training individually and is yet to return
The 2020 Championship champion was ruled out of Wednesday’s cup clash with Arda Kardzhali and is also a doubt to face bitter rivals Levski Sofia this weekend.
Daniel Farke confirms Ethan Ampadu has suffered a ‘big injury’
As for Ampadu, Farke fears that his most trusted lieutenant may now face a race against time to play a key role in the final 12 games of the Championship campaign.
The coach confirms that his Wales international will require surgery, with further information about the extent of his injury expected to emerge during Farke’s press conference on Thursday.
“It is a bit too early to assess it,” Farke said after that Bramall Lane triumph.
“Looks like a cartilage injury and looking like he will need surgery. It’s too soon to give a timeframe. It depends on how [the surgery] works. He will definitely not be available for the upcoming weeks. It’s a big blow for us.
“What are the chances of two big injuries in one season [for Ampadu] after not missing a minute last season?”
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