Daniel Farke has shared a fresh injury update on his squad ahead of Leeds United’s match with Leicester City.
The Whites will be looking to close the gap on their opponents to six points by making it nine Championship wins in a row, but face the sternest test in the league.
Farke was without six players for last weekend’s 2-0 victory at Plymouth Argyle but had good news on Jaidon Anthony, who is back in contention after missing due to personal reasons.
But perhaps the most surprisingly positive update of his pre-match press conference came in terms of Patrick Bamford, who had initially been ruled out for 10 -12 days.
£7m Bamford was forced to withdraw in the warm-up of the 4-0 win at Swansea City last week, but there is now a small chance he could actually be in the squad earlier than expected on Friday.
Farke shares positive Bamford update
He said: “Patrick has developed positively in the last few days, may not be realistic he’s involved in this game, but who knows? Still 48 hours until this game. Not in team training yet. A topic for the squad perhaps. Will be available for next week, but tiny chance even sooner.”
Having Bamford back in the squad would be a big boost considering the form he was in prior to picking up that injury, stating himself he is the happiest he has been on the pitch in a long time.
That said, Bamford has had plenty of injury problems over the last two-and-a-half-years and regardless of how important this game is, Farke will not want to rush him back and risk another injury.
Leeds have coped well in Bamford’s absence in the last two matches, with Joel Piroe having come back in with a goal and an assist, which should help with his confidence.
Either way, it would see that Bamford will be back to face Chelsea, which is the first game of an extremely busy little run of fixtures.
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