Leeds United will be without Noah Okafor for at least two weeks due to a hamstring injury.
Leeds United boss Daniel Farke has spent all season trying to protect Noah Okafor from injury but admits he cannot wrap the winger in cotton wool.
Okafor has been fit and available for all but one game this season, despite extensive injury issues in his past at AC Milan and RB Salzburg. The Swiss international has started 18 times for Leeds in all competitions and made 27 appearances in total. A slight groin injury kept him out of the trip to Burnley early on in the season but he has otherwise been ever-present for Farke. But at the same time, Okafor has only once started a game and stayed on the pitch to the full-time whistle. Farke says his physical profile is the key reason for that.
"He's a tall and relatively heavy player, especially for an offensive player," said Farke. "And also the way he plays. It's not like he covers an unbelievable distance like midfielders but he covers an unbelievable high speed distance, many sprints, goes for one against one situations and is lightning quick. These types of players are sadly a bit more vulnerable for muscle injuries, you see it in all teams and all other leagues. We've done really well [to keep him fit]. Once the feeling is he gets a bit tired then I don't let him too long on the pitch, knowing he has an injury CV."
Despite the efforts of the Leeds medical team, Farke's substitutions and the player's own work away from Thorp Arch with a sprint and conditioning coach to keep himself in the right shape, Okafor has now succumbed to a hamstring problem. He pulled up after a sprint during the second half of the FA Cup tie at Birmingham City and will now miss between two and four weeks of action. That keeps him out of the trip to Aston Villa and the Elland Road clash with Manchester City at the very least.
Farke says it's an occupational hazard, especially at this time of year: "Sometimes you can't avoid it, the workload is big, difficult pitches in January and February and sometimes there's a little injury. With offensive players you sometimes have to deal with it. If you put them in cotton wool they can't shine. I'm happy he's so quick and puts so much high speed distance in because if you're slow as a snail you rarely have muscle injuries."
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