Leeds United have been dealt a recent injury blow ahead of their Premier League assembly with Leicester City on Thursday night.
What’s the newest?
Speaking in his pre-match press convention (by way of the Yorkshire Post), Jesse Marsch revealed that Pascal Struijk can be unavailable for choice for the journey to the King Power Stadium tomorrow night, because the defender picked up a knock in coaching this week.
However, the 48-year-old went on to counsel that, all being properly, the Dutchman needs to be again in time for the go to of Fulham on Sunday afternoon.
Regarding the situation of the 23-year-old, the American supervisor mentioned: “Pascal picked up a little bit of an injury and won’t be available for tomorrow but we’re hopeful that by Sunday he’ll be available. We’ll see how the next few days go.”
Bad news
Considering simply how spectacular Struijk has been within the Leeds backline to date this season, the truth that the centre-back won’t be match to characteristic towards the Foxes on Thursday is undoubtedly dangerous news for Marsch and his facet.
Indeed, over his nine Premier League fixtures in 2022/23 – all of which have come at left-back – the £13m-rated expertise has been in distinctive attacking type, scoring one goal, offering one help and creating two massive possibilities for his teammates, along with taking a mean of 0.7 photographs – 0.4 of which have hit the goal – making 0.8 key passes and finishing 0.9 dribbles per recreation.
The £29k-per-week defender has additionally impressed in metrics extra typical of his place, serving to his facet preserve two clear sheets, in addition to making a mean of 3.3 tackles – the joint eighth-most in your complete league – 1.7 interceptions, 1.6 clearances and profitable 7.3 duels – at a hit price of 53% – per recreation.
These returns have seen the participant who Marsch himself claimed is at the moment enjoying at a “high level” common a particularly spectacular SofaScore match score of 6.91, rating him because the Whites’ sixth-best performer within the high flight – a fairly extraordinary feat contemplating the very fact he has been enjoying in an unfamiliar place.
As such, whereas Leeds do have Junior Firpo available for the journey to Leicester, it’s nonetheless clear to see that the absence of the 23-year-old will come as an enormous “blow” – within the phrases of Graham Smyth – to the Whites’ possibilities of bringing all three factors again to Elland Road on Thursday evening, as Struijk has been an integral half of Marsch’s backline this season.