Jesse Marsch has his fingers crossed that Illan Meslier will be given the green light to restart training today. The goalkeeper has been suffering with a case of glandular fever and as a result, he hasn’t been seen in a Leeds United shirt since the Whites’ clash with Tottenham Hotspur on the eve of the World Cup break.
Meslier didn’t travel to Spain with the rest of the first-team and he has sat out mid-season friendlies against Elche, Real Sociedad and AS Monaco. The Frenchman has played every minute of Leeds’ Premier League campaign so far, but it seems he is now in a race against time if he is to continue that run by playing against Manchester City on December 28 at Elland Road.
He will undergo an examination today (Friday December 23) and if he is given the all clear, he will be able to restart full training with the Whites in the build-up to next week’s Premier League restart.
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“He has sort of a test tomorrow morning when they kind of do some internal checking,” Marsch confirmed in his pre-match press conference on Thursday afternoon. “If he's cleared, which they typically think, it’ll be four weeks by that point, that we think he'll be back in training.
“He's been active. With glandular fever, it's two things, it's modifying so they don't get chronic fatigue and then it's also making sure that they have no contact so that the when they have swelling of internal organs that you're not risking any damage.
“He's felt really good and I expect him to be in full training.”
Joel Robles and Kristoffer Klaesson have managed to pick up some much-needed game time over the last few weeks in Meslier’s absence and they’ll both be feeling fit and good to go if called upon to face Pep Guardiola’s side. Marsch admits he has spoken about a back-up plan between the sticks if Meslier isn’t deemed fit enough, but he hasn’t made a final decision about who would step in as the club’s number two at this stage.
“Well, I think we've had some discussions and I think both goalkeepers have performed well,” he added. “Obviously Kris has had an illness as well, so he wasn't in Spain.
“Joel I think has performed really well and been a great addition to what we've done here. So we haven't made that decision yet, but I think that both will be ready.”
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