Leeds United head coach Jesse Marsch has been boosted the availability of skipper Liam Cooper for this weekend's trip to Arsenal, while the Whites boss also revealed that he is 'cautiously optimistic' over Patrick Bamford, who is due to return to training next week.
Marsch takes his side to north London on Sunday for another daunting test against a top-four hopeful as Leeds battle against the drop. Cooper was missed during last week's 4-0 defeat to Manchester City, but Marsch was finally able to deliver some good injury news on that front.
"On the other injury front, Patrick has been on the pitch so we remain cautiously optimistic with that," Marsch said in his pre-Gunners press conference.
Read more: Follow Jesse Marsch's pre-Arsenal press conference as it happens
"Tyler [Roberts], Adam [Forshaw] and Cree [Summerville] are all moving in the right direction. Liam Cooper trained today, Diego [Llorente] trained today, so we should have, other than those five guys, we should have our full complement.
Asked if Cooper would be fit to play, Marsch responded: "I think actually think Liam will play. He was fully in training today and felt good. So I think he'll be available."
He was then pressed on the nature of the problem
"They call it the 'fat pad', which I don't know what that means. It's not a muscle, it's something in his knee that is like a lubricant, but he's feeling good."
The Whites skipper was withdrawn from the starting line-up to face Manchester City last weekend when he injured his knee in the warm-up.
Patrick Bamford, meanwhile has been absent since the dramatic win at Wolves in March when he ruptured his plantar fascia in what was the latest blow during his injury-hit campaign.
When asked about the prospect of Bamford returning before the end of the season, Marsch said: "I think so. I watched him on the pitch a bit today, he was moving really well, doing a bit of ball work. Relatively active and dynamic, so I think we still have two-and-a-half weeks and we'll go step-by-step but hopeful that we can him back into training next week."
Marsch also gave a more detailed update on Stuart Dallas, who suffered a devastating femoral fracture during the defeat to Man City.
"He had a successful surgery," Marsch said. "It was a long surgery, five-and-a-half hours but they believe that the outcome was very positive and they say it'll a long recovery but they believe that he'll have a full recovery.
"He has had something like 400 or 500 messages from fans, family and friends. We know that he's loved and I think that this moment proved it more than anything. I don't want to speak for Stuart, but I've heard he's been very appreciative of so many people reaching out and extending their concerns and their love towards him.
"We all hope for the absolute best for Stuart and we hope that he is soon pain-free and back here at the training centre so we can really start his recovery."
Dallas has joined Forshaw, Roberts and Summerville in missing the rest of the season.
Leeds face Arsenal at 2pm on Sunday, with their relegation rivals Everton kicking off at the same time against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium. Burnley, the other club in what appears to be a three-way battle to avoid the final relegation, host Aston Villa in a Saturday 3pm kick-off.
