Fifteen minutes of football in 53 days is far from the ideal preparation before facing the Premier League leaders, but Liam Cooper’s Scotland cameo could be huge for Leeds United. The captain has been missing in Leeds colours since Jesse Marsch’s final match in charge at Nottingham Forest.
There was a false dawn at Everton where caretaker Michael Skubala suggested the club captain was fit enough for the bench, but not extended minutes. Cooper would drop out of the squad altogether one week later and did not return until 12 days ago at Molineux.
Skubala and Javi Gracia’s reticence to talk about injuries in any detail has made it hard to put a finger on what exactly Cooper was suffering with and why it took so long to heal. It‘s bound to have been a frustrating period for him, but in his absence, Max Wober has settled into a fine partnership with Robin Koch.
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The Austrian’s hamstring issue means Cooper is needed once again and that pre-international break return could not have been better timed. Training is one thing and match action is quite another, so Cooper is bound to be rusty, but midweek must have meant a huge amount to him and Gracia.
“Liam is ready, of course,” said the head coach. “All of us could see the game, I suffered a little bit, but I enjoyed [it] because I could see Liam competing again and I know how important [that was] for him and [how important] for us, is Liam.
“At this moment of the season, we need all the players ready because, with this busy schedule, we need all of them.”
Cooper did not have long on the field at Hampden Park, but it was the short, sharp burst he undoubtedly needed to blow away some cobwebs before Saturday’s trip to the capital. It would have given him and Gracia some peace of mind his body is ready for the intensity of competitive football too.
The skipper is sure to have been pushing himself to his limits in training to rest out any niggles, but he can at least go into Saturday with some degree of confidence in how his body’s holding up.
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