Jesse Marsch is hopeful that Leeds United will be able to welcome back a host of players in time to face Manchester City at Elland Road next week. The Whites were missing 10 senior first-team names on Wednesday night as they took on Monaco in their final mid-season friendly before the restart of the Premier League season.
Mateusz Klich, Rodrigo and Liam Cooper were amongst the players to drop out of the starting line-up, while Illan Meslier, Patrick Bamford, Crysencio Summerville, Tyler Adams and Jack Harrison were amongst those not involved against the Ligue 1 club. Marsch, though, has moved to allay any fears of lay-offs, explaining that illness was one of the reasons for so many absentees on Wednesday night.
United do have a number of minor injuries, too, but the head coach remains optimistic that most will return in time to take on Pep Guardiola’s side. Marsch also provided an update on Stuart Dallas, who has gone under the knife once more, and Luis Sinisterra.
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“Yesterday, we didn't have a bunch of guys in the mix because of a few little injuries and we had a sickness kind of going around the team,” the head coach explained in his pre-match press conference. “So, Klichy was sick, we had a few other guys sick the night before the day of the match.
“So, we're hopeful that everyone can be healthy and be back in training this week, with exception to Stuart (Dallas), who actually had another surgery yesterday to kind of clean some things up. They felt good that that surgery was successful.
“Luis Sinisterra is making great progress and we feel like he's on track. We have to be a little bit cautious with this injury, but we're hopeful that in a couple weeks he can be back in training.
“We're hopeful that everyone else is back in training this week. So we'll wait and see but hopefully we can get healthy and fit and ready for the start of the season again.”
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