Leeds United lose key man after surgery, fresh doubts over pair and Farke clarifies Dallas plan — YEP 9/11/23

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Leeds United boss Daniel Farke has lost Pascal Struijk for the Elland Road meeting with Plymouth Argyle after the defender had a hernia operation.

By Graham Smyth

Struijk has been playing through the pain barrier since the summer according to Farke and despite the issue has cemented a place on the left side of the Whites’ central defensive partnership. Farke has also made Struijk captain in games when both Liam Cooper and Luke Ayling have not been involved from the start, but the victory over Leicester City was the last straw when it came to the injury the Dutchman was carrying.

"Some bad news, Pascal Struijk will miss out the game on Saturday,” said Farke. “In recent weeks and months he had growing problems with his hernia, especially after the last game. We decided to send him to London for assessment, treatment and a little surgery. Not too bad. We hope to have him back pretty soon, it's too early too judge. We can just speak about the timeframe at some point next week. He'll definitely miss this game.

“He has problems on both hernias so it's too early to speak on the timeframe, he's had ongoing problems for months, even during pre-season and was able to deliver really good performances despite these problems. After the last game it was too painful. With so many games coming up it's a smart situation to use the break to give him a bit of time to recover. I hope he won't miss too many games.”

Farke will also be without Joe Gelhardt for Saturday’s game, although the forward will not require an operation on his fractured hand, while Djed Spence remains an absentee through his knee injury and the fixture comes too soon for Jamie Shackleton.

“With Joe Gelhardt overall some good news - he didn't need any surgery but he will definitely miss this game,” said Farke. “I'll hope he'll be back in team training during the international break and to be re-involved after. The same as Jamie Shackleton, also a strain in his glutes. He'll definitely miss this game. Djed Spence in the final stages of his rehab, we hope he'll be back in team training on the other side of the break and then pretty soon ready for the games.”

There are also doubts over Patrick Bamford and Charlie Cresswell, who have missed training sessions in the early stages of the week leading up to the Plymouth Argyle game. Farke said: “There are two little question marks – behind Patrick Bamford, he's missed the first sessions this week through illness and was just back in team training with a light session today, I hope he's available – and Charlie Cresswell missed the beginning of the week due to private reasons, I hope he's available too but we'll wait to see.”

Meanwhile Stuart Dallas’ Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill has revealed his hope that the versatile Leeds man could link up with the national team during the upcoming break, although not to feature in the games against Finland and Denmark. "To be fair I think Stuart has had some progress in terms of where he is at. He has been training back with Leeds but has had to step back a couple of times from that," said O'Neill.

"I had a conversation with him about possibly coming in to join up with the squad for a day or two next week. That is something that maybe the medical team with ourselves and the medical team at Leeds will discuss. Obviously their main priority is to ensure that the care is there for him as well. It would be nice just to see him around again.”

According to Farke Dallas is not involved in team training at the moment: “Stuart Dallas is in individual training, hopefully he can join us in team training pretty soon at least in parts. It's not the plan [for him to train with Northern Ireland]. He can't be involved in team training with Northern Ireland but he will have one or two days off and if he wants to use this to be there with a short visit, also to lift the mood. When you're involved in such a long process it's not easy for the head. But the main topic is to work in his rehab and join us in team training as soon as possible.”

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