Daniel Farke has suffered a few obstacles as he attempts to maintain the Whites’ excellent form.
Leeds United will go to Plymouth Argyle on Saturday lunchtime, hoping to extend their seven-game Championship winning streak, which has seen them overtake Southampton and sneak into one of the automatic promotion spots.
Plymouth are currently 15th in the table, but they made things difficult for Leeds in the FA Cup fourth round, forcing a replay with a 1-1 draw at Elland Road. Leeds would eventually win 4-1 at Home Park, although the scoreline was slightly misleading because they needed extra time to do the job.
Manager Daniel Farke had been watching several injury concerns in his team prior to the encounter. Striker Patrick Bamford was picked in the starting lineup for the midweek trip to Swansea, but Joel Piroe was forced to replace him at the last minute due to an injury acquired during the warmup. Speaking after the game, Farke stated that the player was optimistic that the problem was not “too serious,” but revealed that he would have a specialist assessment to establish whether he had broken any ankle ligaments.
In other news, Sam Byram was ruled out of the game after injuring his muscle in the 3-0 victory over Rotherham. Byram, who was having a “outstanding” season according to his management, was also scheduled to undergo tests.
Bamford and Byram are out versus Plymouth.
According to BBC Sport’s Adam Pope, who reported from Farke’s pre-Plymouth press conference, Bamford will be out for up to 12 days, and Byram will miss the next two as well.
After beating Plymouth, Leeds face table-toppers Leicester City next Friday before traveling to Chelsea for the FA Cup fifth round on February 28.
In further good news, Jamie Shackleton is back, while Pascal Struijk may increase his engagement in training if scan findings next week are encouraging. In the meantime, goalkeeper Karl Darlow is getting close to returning the first-team workouts.
Mixed feelings on Bamford
Leeds were undoubtedly especially concerned about Bamford’s injury status considering his track record. As shown in the table below, the £40,000-per-week player has missed 68 games and 437 days due to different injuries during the 2018/19 season, including an ankle injury that sidelined him for nearly six weeks.
In that way, it’s a relief that he should be back in three games or less, but it’s still a disappointment because he’d been in terrific form, scoring four goals and assisting once in his last six games.
The Englishman had not started a league game all season prior to that span, but he appeared to be in prime shape as Farke named him to the starting lineup for six consecutive games.
