Injuries may have hampered Joe Gelhardt’s season just like so many of his Leeds United team-mates, but at long last, he feels fully fit and ready for this run-in. Jesse Marsch has repeatedly talked up Gelhardt’s claims to a start, but injuries, knocks and one false-positive Covid result have scotched the teenager’s training regime.
Every week it has felt like there has been a new issue coming between the striker and the top-flight minutes he so craves, but with a chance of more under-23 minutes tomorrow, Gelhardt is very much eyeing up Crystal Palace a week on Monday. In the continued absence of Patrick Bamford, Gelhardt’s under-23 brilliance and quality senior cameos have lined him up as the best alternative.
It’s a topic Marsch has been unafraid to address. There was the back spasm after his Norwich City heroics which ended his scheduled start at Molineux, before the false positive which ruined his preparation for Southampton and then a dead leg with the under-23s killed his chances for Watford.
