Leeds United have not pushed on in the manner supporters hoped they would this season and there are several contributing factors as to why. Although mistakes have been made, the staggering number of injuries suffered by members of the squad cannot be ignored when dissecting why the Whites have fallen into a relegation battle.
The long-term absences of Kalvin Phillips and Patrick Bamford have been particularly crushing for a club which has operated with a lean squad, as was the preference of Jesse Marsch's predecessor Marcelo Bielsa. Struggles with injury have not eased since the arrival of the American and in the recent win over Wolverhampton Wanderers, four players had to be withdrawn due to injury.
Ben Dinnery, an injury analyst for Premier Injuries, has posted a table on Twitter which compares the club's injury struggles with each of their Premier League counterparts. Although Leeds have been ravaged by absences, Everton sit top of the table when it comes to injuries per 1,000 minutes played.
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They are closely followed by Leeds and Watford, who sit on the same figure just below. Crystal Palace have been the most fortunate, picking up just 3.3 injuries per 1,000 minutes compared to Leeds' figure of 10.1.
As the table documents, Leeds have had a total of 39 absences, 31 of which have been due to injury. The top five is completed by Newcastle United and Brighton & Hove Albion, and it is arguably quite telling that the top five in this table all occupy places in the bottom half of the actual table.
Although Leeds do not yet boast a clean bill of health, they have been boosted by the recent returns of key duo Liam Cooper and Phillips. Both featured in the 1-1 draw with Southampton and the former even managed to come through 90 minutes unscathed.
