The Championship returns this weekend with the race for automatic promotion – and the league title resumes with two games in four days.
After the international break, Leeds, along with promotion rivals Leicester City and Ipswich Town, are in action on Friday. Leicester kick things off with the 12.30pm kick-off against Bristol City at Ashton Gate.
A few hours later, Ipswich step up to the stage as they travel to Blackburn Rovers in the 5.30pm kick-off. Leeds will be keeping a close eye on both of those games and then will be looking to respond when they take on Watford at Vicarage Road in the 8pm kick-off.Ahead of the games, just one point separates all three teams at the top of the table. The Whites are currently top on goal difference, ahead of Leicester, with Ipswich just one point behind in third.
Leicester do, however, have a game in hand. That comes at home against Southampton and will be played next month.
While concentration will be on the team’s own results, Leeds fans will be keeping a close eye on how events unfold elsewhere. Ahead of the games, here is a look at how each squad is shaping up in terms of injuries.
Leeds United
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, Daniel Farke gave a positive update on Georginio Rutter, who underwent minor surgery during the international break:
“He is on the road back, he was already involved in parts of team training,” he said . “That was definitely a positive thing. It was beneficial for him to have that surgery. He was involved in bits and parts of the training session today.
“He is on a good path. There are still 48 hours and I’m carefully optimistic he will be available for the squad and some minutes.”
Leeds do have some injury worries after players returned from international duty. Connor Roberts, Wilfried Gnonto, Ilia Gruev and Junior Firpo will all be assessed ahead of the game at Vicarage Road.
Defender Pascal Struijk has undergone hip surgery that will rule him out for the rest of the season. Stuart Dallas, who is yet to play this season makes up the injury list.
Leicester City
Leicester have been handed a boost ahead of the return of Championship action, with Enzo Maresca confirming that talisman Jamie Vardy will return from injury. The striker missed the FA Cup quarter-final against Chelsea with a small problem but has recovered over the international break.
In what is another boost, influential full-back Ricardo Pereira could also make the squad. The Portuguese has not played since the loss to Leeds last month; he could also be joined by midfielder Dennis Praet, who has missed the last three games through injury.
Maresca did, however, confirm that winger Kasey McAteer, defender Ben Nelson, and striker Tom Cannon are set to miss the game at Ashton Gate. Leicester will also be without defender Callum Doyle, who will serve a one-match suspension after his red card vs Chelsea.
“Kasey is still out. Jamie’s back. Ricky could be involved in the squad tomorrow. Dennis could be involved in the squad tomorrow,” Maresca said in his pre-match press conference .
“The only one 100 per cent fit is Jamie. Then Ben Nelson is injured from the national team and Tom Cannon got an injury during the international break.
“The problem with Kasey is the same as last time so we need to be careful with him so that he can come back and not get an injury again. Hopefully it can be soon.
“It’s a short injury (for Cannon). For sure he’s out for Bristol City and Norwich, but he could be back for Birmingham. (For Nelson), it could be a short injury.”
Ipswich Town
Ipswich have been handed a blow ahead of their game against Blackburn, with winger Wes Burns set to miss the games over the Easter weekend. The 29-year-old went off in the first half of the Tractor Boys’ 6-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday before the international break and is now set for some time on the sidelines.
“We’re OK. From the last game, we obviously lost Wes,” McKenna said. “He’s seen the specialist now. As we suspected, it’s certainly not a short-term injury to his hamstring, but no surgery required and he’s doing OK.
“So we’ll have it rescanned in a week or so and we’ll know a lot more than about how long the recovery’s going to be.”
Ipswich will also assess the players who have been away on international duty, including striker Kieffer Moore, who suffered disappointment in Wales’ Euros play-off against Poland.
“It’s a challenging time in terms of the international week,” McKenna added. “We’ve had Cameron [Burgess] playing on the other side of the world [in Australia], we’ve had Jeremy [Sarmiento] playing in New York, we’ve had the Welsh boys going through an emotional 120 minutes last night, in Kieffer [Moore]’s case, so that’s a challenge.
“We had the whole group back in today apart from Cameron, he’ll return to the training ground tomorrow, so we’ll make the best of the cards that are in front of us and prepare as well as we can for the game and get the whole group back together and make sure we’re going into Friday in a really good place.
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