Leeds United midfielder on course for ahead-of-schedule return after positive international break — Yorkshire Post 22/11/24
By Stuart Rayner
Leeds United have actually coped pretty well without him,
but as things stand captain Ethan Ampadu is on course to provide them with an
early Christmas present.
Barring surgery for Isaac Schmidt, the international break
has served Leeds pretty well in terms of injuries, with Largie Ramazani back in
training ahead of Sunday's Championship game at Swansea City.
Midfielder/defender Ampadu will not feature in south Wales,
but is on track to return sooner than planned after knee ligament damage which
it was feared might have kept him out of competitive football until the new
year.
"We spoke about the middle of December (for Ampadu's
return to training), it would be nice if we can do it even a bit earlier so
that after a week or a couple of weeks of team training he's available for some
of the December games,” said manager Daniel Farke when asked about the
Welshman’s progress.
"It looks good so far but he's in the final stages of
his rehab and has not trained with the team so far. He won't train next week
with the team – not that we'll have too many training sessions together! – but
perhaps pretty soon afterwards he can hopefully join us and it will be a big
boost for us."
Leeds have only lost one of eight games without Ampadu, even
though his central midfield partner Ilia Gruev missed the last seven with a
meniscus injury which will take longer to heal.
Ao Tanaka and Joe Rothwell have formed a formidable central
midfield partnership in their absence and Josuha Guilavogui has joined as a
free agent in the interim, but with six December league games and two more in
the first four days of 2025, the more options available, the better.
Leeds seem to have largely benefitted from the time players
have spent with their countries, without any picking up injuries.
"Brenden (Aaronson) had a little illness during the
international break and was not available for one game but everything's
okay," said Farke. "I think it was a little beneficial after lots of
load that he didn't play that many minutes.
"Max Wober played 90 minutes (for Austria against
Slovenia). I was happy he played but a bit concerned he played 90 minutes if
I'm honest because it was for him more or less out of the cold.
"We had to look after him a little bit more this week
because the knee reacted a little bit but I think everything's okay and he's
available. Overall it's beneficial he got a few minutes under his belt.
"Largie joined us the first time for parts of team
training this week. The next week with three games in six days will come a bit
soon for him to be in the starting line-up but he could be a topic for the
squad.
"We have to keep in mind he was out for six weeks and
he's only done parts of team training so far. There's potential for Sunday, we
will decide after the last training session.” And others benefitted
psychologically.
"Mateo (Joseph), who scored in the last game (for Spain
Under-21s), it's a big boost for him<” said Farke. “The game before he
didn't score and there was also a bit of criticism.
"If a player like Manor (Solomon) is doing well against
teams like France and Belgium – he was man of the match against Belgium and to
beat Belgium with Israel is not that easy – it's good for the confidence."
Ironically, the one injury came from someone not called up
by his country.
"Isaac Schmidt needed a little hernia surgery during
this international break so he will definitely miss out on Sunday, I hope to
have him back in training at some point next week," said Farke.
"We have experience with surgeries like this, it's
normally a question of more or less two weeks.
"He will definitely miss the game on Sunday because he
had it (surgery) more or less at the beginning of the first week of the
international break."