Jesse Marsch explains Leeds United injury situation for seven players before Aston Villa visit - YEP 9/3/22

Patrick Bamford will return for Leeds United at home to Aston Villa tomorrow night according to head coach Jesse Marsch.

By Graham Smyth

"Patrick will play for sure, he won't start but we're excited to have him back in the team and he'll give us a massive boost," said Marsch.

"When we were contemplating his return and what we wanted his work to look like, the physical team told me about his loading over the last six months. He hasn't trained often or played much. Even getting him back, it was the reason I was hesitant at Leicester. I felt we had more to lose than gain in that moment. Even from a personality perspective, he's a positive guy, works hard, the effect he'll have on the group will be relatively massive and we have to handle his return in a way that ensures he gets better and better."

Bamford returned to the Leeds bench at Leicester City for the first time since December, when he injured his hamstring celebrating his late equaliser against Brentford. Since then the striker has picked up a quad problem and, most recently, torn his plantar fascia.

Although Bamford joined in with training late last week as Marsch introduced himself and his footballing philosophy to the squad, and warmed up extensively at the King Power Stadium, the head coach decided not to throw him in. Bamford, he said, was only fit enough for a maximum of 10 minutes and because Marsch felt the game needed a change with 15 minutes remaining he opted for Tyler Roberts instead. Bamford and Marsch shared an embrace on the touchline as the forward returned to the bench from what had become a pointless warm-up routine. Sadly for Leeds, Roberts ruptured his hamstring tendon less than two minutes later and, having had surgery earlier this week, will be out for three months and miss the rest of the Premier League season.

"I want to acknowledge the injury with Tyler Roberts," said Marsch at the outset of his press conference.

"It was a freak accident on the pitch. We knew it was going to be a pretty heavy injury right away but Tyler was adamant about wanting to stay on the pitch, which I appreciated and it maybe helped us with set-pieces a little bit. He had a successful surgery, we texted a little bit, he was in good spirits and the surgeon feels like it went well and he'll have a full recovery and in three or four months time be back at it."

Adam Forshaw and Diego Llorente are both available to start against Villa. Forshaw came on as a substitute at Leicester having missed training last week and Llorente sat out with a minor knock.

"Forshaw and Llorente are possibilities from the start and close to 100 per cent," said Marsch.

"Adam told me he hasn't felt this good in weeks. Diego had a small muscle issue, it kept him out of availability for the weekend but he'll certainly be in the squad tomorrow."

Both Phillips and Liam Cooper suffered a similar fate to Bamford in the Brentford game, limping off with hamstring tears. The pair had surgery and Leeds had always hoped they would be fit for the Aston Villa game at Elland Road, despite Marcelo Bielsa saying an early March return no longer looked likely.

"Liam was in training yesterday and is making good progress," said Marsch.

"Kalvin is a few days behind, we will evaluate on Friday if he’s ready for training. In my mind, I'm earmarking the international break as a time to get Kalvin back into the training rhythm and closer to 100 per cent, maybe earlier, but what's important at this juncture is no setbacks and building up so that the curve is steep as it can be with no interruptions."

Leo Hjelde had knee surgery last week according to Marsch and the recovery period could be weeks rather than months for the Norwegian defender. The head coach hopes to have the former Celtic youngster involved before the end of the season.

"The immediate feedback was that it was not so severe and they trimmed up his knee really well, it hasn’t reacted, no swelling, he's got full range of motion," said the head coach.

"He's walking without a limp. It will be a matter of weeks, not months."