Leeds United will approach their clash with Aston Villa this weekend with something close to a full strength squad, Jesse Marsch has confirmed. The head coach has a couple of new injury concerns, but a majority of the group will be available to take on Steven Gerrard’s side at Elland Road on Sunday.
The Whites haven’t played for almost four weeks and in that time the likes of Patrick Bamford, Luke Ayling, Liam Cooper, Junior Firpo and Rodrigo have regained full fitness and it seems they could all be in contention to start this week. However, Leeds will be without Adam Forshaw this weekend, who has picked up an ankle issue.
The midfielder isn’t expected to miss too much action, though, and his fitness will certainly be useful as the games begin to come thick and fast before the next international break. Archie Gray has sat out of training for the last two weeks after breaking a toe and he won’t feature for the Under-21s this evening against Stoke City.
Read more: Jesse Marsch press conference LIVE: Leeds United boss on injuries, touchline ban and Aston Villa
Leeds’ only other injury concern at this stage is Stuart Dallas, who is making strong progress, the head coach has revealed.
“Archie Gray had an incident at home where he stubbed his toe and he fractured a little bit of his big toe,” the head coach told the press on Friday afternoon. “He’s been out of training for two weeks and he’ll be out probably for another two weeks.
“Stuart is making really good recovery. He went down to see a specialist and they feel like he is doing really well and he’s on track. Obviously it will still be some time for him.
“Adam Forshaw twisted his ankle this week. It’s not so bad but he won’t be available this weekend.
“Other than that every single player is available for us so we’re feeling like we’re getting to full strength.”
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