Leeds have two new fitness problems after illness in the camp
Friday, 24th Oct 2025 11:57 by Tim Whelan
Okafor and Gnonto are yet to return to full training, and now two other players have joined them on the sidelines in the run up to tonight's vital game against West Ham United.
There is no word yet on the club’s official site, but The Athletic are quoting Daniel Farke as saying “A few players are struggling with illnesses, like probably the whole country is doing at the moment. Ethan Ampadu and Pascal Struijk missed team training today, so (there are) also question marks about their availability.”
Bijol would be the obvious replacement for Struijk, which would please the ‘why have we paid £15m for a player just to keep him on the bench’ faction on social media, along with those who think Struijk might have been at fault for a couple of the goals we have conceded lately. Ampadu might leave bigger shoes to fill, but this could involve Longstaff dropping deeper and giving Tanaka a game in a more attacking midfield role.
Farke would also have to decide who captains the side if his captain and vice-captain both miss the game, but Longstaff and Rodon would be the likely candidates. Okafor and Gnonto missed the Burnley game through an adductor injury and hernia surgery respectively, and Farke indicated that Okafor is the more likely of the two to recover in time for tonight’s game.
After three consecutive games when we have ended up with fewer points than our overall play deserved, could our manager make a few other changes to boost the odds of taking the chances we create? At least in games like tonight’s when there should be less need to pack the midfield and prioritise those players who will do their share of tracking back.
James is fit again and could come in for Aaronson, and I would also like to see Piroe on the field to get on the end of Calvert-Lewin’s knock downs, as our centre forward has looked isolated far too often in recent weeks. But I bet Farke will be making only the changes enforced by fitness issues, and otherwise stick with the same eleven who started at Burnley.
There is also the option of giving Harry Gray his Premier League debut at some point, now he has reached his 17th birthday and signed his first professional contract earlier this week. It was described as ‘long term’ on the official site, but as three years is the maximum length for a lad that age, I presume it will run till the end of the 2027/8 season.
The young Gray is certainly keen to get going, and told LUTV this week that his aims are “Just break into the first team and score goals in the Premier League, that’s it really. I think I can definitely do it but it is just when my chance comes, I have got to be able to take it and gain everyone’s trust”. He could be just the man to solve our goalscoring problems.
As we’ve taken only one point from the last three games and slipped down the table to 16th, many fans are now suggesting that tonight's game at home to relegation rivals is a ‘must win’, especially as we need to get more points on the board before our difficult run of fixtures starting in late November.
West ham looked dreadful against Brentford on Monday night, so it’s easy to see them as a club in crisis, but they’re playing better away from the toxic atmosphere of the London stadium. Their only win so far came at the City Ground, and their performance at Everton showed signs that Nuno was already starting to turn things around. He can be forgiven their defeat at Arsenal, where they lost by a smaller margin than we did.
So whatever line-up we manage to put out, we can still expect a tough game tonight. The fun starts at 8pm and it’s being televised live by our dear friends at Sky Sports.
_Reuters_
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