Lining up without Rodrigo in a match Leeds United must win for any chance of surviving relegation will have fingers pointing at Sam Allardyce. The head coach chose to keep the club’s top scorer on the field last weekend as he limped around with a plantar fascia on fire at West Ham United.
With Patrick Bamford already removed from the fray with a hamstring injury which may rule him out of this weekend too, Allardyce felt it was worth harming Rodrigo’s issue further. The 68-year-old felt Leeds were in the game until the hosts’ third goal and wanted to keep his best goal scorer on the field for that one sniff he may have needed.
Asked if he had considered taking the striker off for fear of damaging the plantar fascia further, Allardyce said: “Yeah, but we had to because we were always in the game.
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“We were winning the game and then it was half-time, it was 1-1. Second half we were in the game. They got to 2-1, we were still in the game.
“So we couldn't take him off because, looking at the substitutions, who could replace him? We didn't really have a centre forward to replace him.”
Rodrigo could be seen limping around the field for the majority of the second half at London Stadium. The 32-year-old was unable to apply any pressure to the home defenders as they brought the ball out from the back.
Rodrigo also struggled to even put himself in any position to score because of his inability to run at high speeds. He was pictured with the rest of the group meeting Eddie Gray and Gary McAllister this week, but in trainers rather than boots like the majority of the side.
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