Liam Cooper has given an insight into his tough battle with injuries as he nears a return for Leeds United. The Whites skipper is yet to feature for Jesse Marsch's side in the Premier League, but did feature in the Carabao Cup second round tie against Barnsley.
The Scotland international suffered another injury setback in that tie, after missing a large chunk of pre-season.
Speaking to The Official Leeds Utd Podcast, Cooper said: "I'm good. Obviously my pre-season has been a bit of a nightmare. I picked the injury up when I was training in the off season and it wasn't quite right when I was in Australia.
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"I've been struggling and picked a few injuries up, getting back up top speed, but this is probably my first full week training this week. I'm looking forward to getting back and helping the team as much as I can.
"I think you've always got to be [in and around the first-team], even when I'm injured I like to get out and watch the training. Bridgey [Michael Bridges] will tell you that's all I did out in Australia. It's more for myself really.
"When Jesse came in it was a completely different style and I wanted to keep myself in the loop as you might say. How the manager wants the centre-halves to work and how he wants them to play, certainly last season, when I came back from the hamstring injury it helped me a lot.
"I'd seen the lads in practise without doing it myself and when I came back I had a real idea of what Jesse wanted me to do and the organisation I needed, a lot of the tactical points I needed once I'd got my gym work done. I think definitely as a captain, you can't be selfish.
"I think you've got to come in and there's no days off. Even when you have those down days, you've got to find it from within and go and be a focal point around the place and lift the lads up if they may need it. Maybe give the lads a rollicking if they're not pulling their weight, that's the way it's got to be.
"We've got an amazing group, there's a lot of leaders in this group. I'm talking your Stuart Dallas, he's playing the same role I had to play last season, it's difficult for Stu but he's a great person to have round the place, Luke Ayling, Adam Forshaw and people like that.
"Even though I haven't been on the pitch as much as I wanted to be, I'm always trying to be there, to mingle with the boys and pick up little tactical things that we're learning every single day."
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