It is approaching two years since Stuart Dallas last played for Leeds United and suffered a horrific broken leg injury – and Daniel Farke has given a new update today on his fight to return to football.
Dallas had just turned 31 when he broke his leg in a collision with Jack Grealish. In a couple of months, the 62-time Northern Ireland star will turn 33 – failing to play since that tackle. He remains sidelined.
It comes after going to London and undergoing surgery that took the best part of eight hours. More recently, Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill said it is unlikely he’d play in his country’s March fixtures.
Dallas is out of contract at the end of the season, like Liam Cooper – and Phil Hay says it is unlikely that he will get a new deal. So, the chances are that Dallas might have played his last game for the club.
Speaking about Dallas in his latest press conference on Friday – as per the club’s YouTube – Farke said that the club are “trying everything” to give him a fighting chance of getting back on the field of play.
“With Stuart, the same. He gets all the time he needs. He’s been out for so many months, it is not possible to speak about days. We give him all the time. He’s seen different consultants,” Farke said.
“We’ve tried everything in order to work with him in the most-professional way and hope it works out in the end. We try everything to support him and don’t want to put any pressure on him,” the boss added.
Daniel Farke delivers new update on Leeds man Stuart Dallas
The lack of encouraging updates regarding Dallas is a worry – and with Leeds now firmly in the latter third of the season, would we even risk using him? It is not as if Leeds are sitting in mid-table now.
It isn’t as if Leeds are just playing for mid-table obscurity and waiting for the season to end. We are playing for promotion and there isn’t any room to given players time to rediscover their sharpness.
Whether Leeds choose to hand Dallas a new deal in order to allow the versatile star to continue his recovery from injury remains to be seen. But you’d imagine it seems unlikely, he plays for Leeds again.
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