Big Leeds United blow as Daniel Farke reveals pre-Arsenal team news but new faces chance — YEP 21/8/25
By Lee Sobot
Leeds United team news for Saturday evening’s second game of
the new Premier League season at Arsenal.
Whites boss Daniel Farke has provided his Leeds United team
news for Saturday evening’s Premier League clash at Arsenal with a big blow but
new faces chance.
Club captain Ethan Ampadu excelled in Monday night’s 1-0 win
at home to Everton but looked set to be forced off injured after a strong
challenge from Everton's Tim Iroegbunam 11 minutes into the second half.
The skipper stayed down and appeared both in pain and upset
as he received treatment only to eventually continue and play on for another 22
minutes before being brought off 12 minutes from time.
Speaking post match, Farke said Leeds were hopeful that the
extent of the damage would just be bad bruising but the Whites boss admitted
the midfielder's condition would have to be checked ahead of Saturday evening’s
trip to the Emirates.
Speaking at Thursday’s pre-match press conference, though,
Farke revealed that Ampadu had suffered an MCL injury and would be missing
until after the international break.
“It’s bad news with him, sadly,” said Farke of Ampadu.
“The next games we have to play without him. MCL injury, he
will definitely be out until at least the international break. I hope to have
him back the other side of the international break. He's pretty quick after
injury back on the training pitch. He’s a tough boy. It's a blow for us, we
will miss him in the upcoming games at least and the two upcoming Premier
League games and the cup game.
“He has proved, not just in the last game but also in the
last game when he was really, I think, exceptional. It’s not ideal. He’s our
captain, not just in performance, but also in the dressing room and from his
whole appearance and his body language, he’s a very important player. It's not
ideal that he’s out after this tackle, but it’s football sometimes, there's an
injury and you have to find other solutions.”
Farke also provided an update on new striker signing Dominic
Calvert-Lewin who was not involved against Everton, three days after being
unveiled as the club’s eighth signing of the summer as a free agent on Friday
afternoon.
Farke warned at the same day's press conference that after
the September international break was probably a more realistic timeframe of
when the forward would be fully ready but did declare his hope that
Calvert-Lewin might be able to feature sooner.
“We’ll see,” said Farke of Calvert-Lewin.
“I think each and every training session and day is
important for him. He had a long summer break and also a few weeks of
individual training, so his general endurance is on a really good level, but
what he has missed was team training and for that, each and every day and each
and every session is important, so he makes a decent impression, I have to say,
so really well integrated.
“You could see from day to day he is growing and when we
will use him for the first time, we’ll decide then spontaneously. From a
fitness point of view, he’s in a good shape and great character. It’s good that
with him and Noah, we have two more options in the offence.”
Farke also has new £15m Slovenian international centre-back
Jaka Bijol back available after the defender was forced to miss the Everton
opener as he served a one match ban for his red card in his final game for
Udinese in Serie A.
Noah Okafor, unveiled as the club’s ninth signing of the
summer on Thursday, joined in time to feature against the Gunners and Farke
says it’s a possibility that he could feature having already been involved at
the start of the season with AC Milan.
“Yes, it’s at least possible because he was involved with AC
Milan in the whole pre-season,” said Farke.
“He has also featured last season for several minutes, so
that means he doesn't need three or four weeks to build up to a game. Let's see
how the next two days will be and we’ll take a late decision with him but it’s
at least possible.”