Leeds United will be without Noah Okafor for this afternoon’s trip to Aston Villa, following his hamstring injury last weekend.
The Whites are back in Birmingham this afternoon following last Sunday’s successful FA Cup fourth round tie, this time at Aston Villa in the Premier League.
Today is Leeds’ toughest remaining away game on paper, facing an Unai Emery side sitting third in the table.
Noah Okafor confirms pre-match Leeds United injury setback ahead of Aston Villa
The major bit of team news coming out of Daniel Farke’s pre-match press conference was the setback to Noah Okafor.
Having started at Birmingham City, the winger pulled up with a suspected hamstring issue late in the second half, and was forced off. Farke confirmed that he will be out for the next two-to-four weeks.
“Noah Okafor suffered a hamstring injury in the cup game. He will be out for between two and four weeks. It’s too early to judge but he will definitely miss Villa and Man City,” Farke said, per the YEP.
It leaves Farke looking for a solution out wide for this game, while Okafor himself has taken to Instagram to react to the blow. He’s looking to be back quickly:
In more positive news, Anton Stach has confirmed his availability today with an Instagram story of his own. As he likes to do, there’s a playful edit involved depicting him as Cruella De Vil.
How does Daniel Farke react to Noah Okafor injury blow against Aston Villa?
Losing Okafor means Leeds don’t have our most dangerous threat in 1v1 situations. He’d looked like he found his best form in the past few weeks – his performance against Nottingham Forest was his best so far since joining.
So, Farke has a task on his hands to find a way of replicating his threat out wide. Brenden Aaronson is likely to take up that position off the left, and I’m expecting Anton Stach to come in and filter in as a makeshift right-sided option.
You do wonder if this has any impact on Willy Gnonto’s chances of playing. The Italian is somewhat out of favour and an injury to someone in front of Gnonto in the pecking order should be a boost.
The same can be said of the returning Dan James, who could be a real asset in transition later in the game.
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