Here are your Leeds United evening headlines on Thursday, January 20.
Injury expert makes Forshaw prediction
Premier League injury expert Ben Dinnery has predicted Adam Forshaw to be back after the upcoming winter break with the 'small' muscle issue he picked up in the 3-2 win over West Ham United.
Marcelo Bielsa revealed in his pre-match press conference that the 30-year-old will definitely miss the Whites' clash with Newcastle United this weekend, while Patrick Bamford and Junior Firpo are also out.
However, Dinnery doesn't believe Forshaw will miss a sustained amount of time and is expecting him to be back for Leeds' trip to Aston Villa on February 9.
"You’re always going to have a period of adaptation," he told Football Insider.
"Fortunately, it doesn’t look to be too serious," he told Football Insider. "I don’t see any issues with that would rule him out for longer than after the break.
"Different players respond to injuries in different ways. For a grade one tear, you could be looking at anywhere between seven to 21 days.
"If it’s a minor strain, it’s more likely to be 10 to 14 days. But if it’s a grade two, two to four weeks is more realistic."
"However, as it’s just a minor injury, I fully expect to see him back right after that break."
Koch on Leeds position change
Leeds United defender Robin Koch has admitted that he's enjoying his position change after being deployed in a defensive midfield role for the win at West Ham United.
It was the second successive game that Koch has played there following the injury to Kalvin Phillips and he is hoping to continue his form heading into the game against Newcastle United on Saturday.
"It’s not quite a completely new position for me of course," Koch told BBC West Yorkshire.
"It’s a bit different from my normal position as a centre-back but I played it at my old club before loads of times and sometimes for the national team.
"For me, it’s more about getting back to being 100 per cent fit. It’s a bit a different position but it’s a good challenge for me personally and it’s going well.
"I would say [there was more creativity against West Ham]. This is one of my qualities. It doesn’t matter where I play, centre-back or defensive midfield, I want to start building the play from behind and I’m trying to bring this quality to Leeds now."
Newcastle dealt blow ahead of Leeds clash
Newcastle United's hunt for centre backs has been one of the most publicised sagas of this season's January transfer window.
Eddie Howe's side have been struggling terribly at the back and it's thought that they would like to sign two new centre backs this month.
Having thrown away a vital lead against Watford last week, where Jamaal Lascelles was beaten far too easily in the air by teenage forward Joao Pedro, they had targeted bringing in at least one in time to face Leeds United this Saturday.
However, Leeds have been boosted by the fact that time has ticked on this week, with no sign of the Magpies' transfer chase progressing.
Sevilla's Diego Carlos was the number one target but Newcastle has suffered a blow in their pursuit of the Brazilian as he publicly stated he didn't expect to leave the Spanish club.
"I have a lot of time left here (in Seville)," Carlos said on Ultima Hora, a popular show on Spanish TV.
Newcastle are thought to have bid €36million, whilst Sevilla have set the defender's price tag at €50million. Should they manage to convince Carlos to leave Spain, they have some way to go in order to reach a deal with the Seville club.
Whilst they may manage to do this before the end of the transfer window, it seems highly unlikely that any deal would be agreed in time for the defender to face Leeds this weekend.
This is particularly prevalent when considering that it took several days for Kieran Trippier and Chris Wood to sign their contracts and be announced as Newcastle players following fees being agreed for them to move to St James' Park.
