Leeds United appear to dodge Archie Gray injury bullet during hard-fought win over Norwich City — Yorkshire Post 24/1/24

Daniel Farke admitted he feared a serious injury to Archie Gray in an important 1-0 win for Leeds United over Norwich City.

By Stuart Rayner

The teenager was in outstanding form at both ends of the field in a victory that took Leeds a point behind the top three sides, but had to be substituted in stoppage time after going down with an injury.

"In the beginning I was concerned because he got a hit to his knee and overstretched it and he was panicking a little bit fearing something with the ligament but after the first assessment I'm carefully optimistic," said Farke. "It seems like everything's okay with his ACL (anterior cruciate) ligaments, it was more or less just a hit and he overstretched it.

"At this moment it looks good but we have to wait.

"I'm carefully optimistic it's not a long-term injury and that would be important because we definitely need him."

It meant that Leeds could enjoy a deserved but hard-fought win over a side who had plenty of possession in the third quarter of the game, but were unable to make it count.

The Whites were guilty of that to an extent when they were on top, but Patrick Bamford did head in his fourth goal in five games.

"Credit goes to Norwich, they were definitely one of the best sides that have played at Elland Road this season," said Farke. "I expected a competitive game anyway, firstly because Norwich are a really good side and I knew they were five games unbeaten, three wins on the spin, and they would come here to play with freedom. They had nothing to lose because no one expected them to win points at Elland Road and they have many technical players.

"Even when they went 1-0 down they kept going.

"It was a really complicated game and for that I'm more than happy that we won the three points with another clean sheet. (It's) five games so far in January, four clean sheets, we have just conceded one goal and scored many goals (12) so I'm pretty pleased with this.

"It was a game of different spells and we had a few problems to handle their possession when they were pushing us back, the same for them.

"We created the better chances and we scored a fantastic goal so I think in the end it was definitely a deserved win.

"But we had to accept their quality and their possession in spells and in these moments it was important we didn't allow them to have chances. There was one big chance close to the half-time whistle but if you don't score the second goal and we had chances – Jaidon Anthony and Bamford – you have to keep going and fight to the end and to defend without any mistakes."

Daniel James also went off injured, but again it does not seem to be a major issue.

"Daniel James I had to substitute because close to the half-time whistle he slipped a bit and he overstretched his hip flexor, adductor, I hope it's a little strain, not too bad, but I think he will definitely be out for the FA Cup game for the weekend and I hope then he can return pretty soon to training because we need him, he's in brilliant shape," said his manager.