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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Liam Wood

Storm Eunice hands Leeds major blow as their Manchester United preparations are hampered

Storm Eunice will hopefully be a thing of the past by the time Manchester United get down to business at Elland Road - but adverse weather conditions have already hampered opponents Leeds United.

After returning to winning ways against Brighton in midweek, United are set for a short trip across the M62 for the latest showdown with their bitter rivals on Sunday afternoon.

It marks the start of a hugely important double-header for interim manager Ralf Rangnick and his team, with the trip to Leeds followed by the first leg of a last-16 Champions League tie with Atletico Madrid.

Marcelo Bielsa has been forced to contend with a number of injuries to key players this season with Liam Cooper, Kalvin Phillips and Patrick Bamford all sidelined.

Promising defender Leo Fuhr Hjelde was summoned from the bench to replace Stuart Dallas against Everton - but he too failed to see out the match. Junior Firpo has also been sidelined for over a month as he steps up his comeback just in time to face United.

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The above means that Leeds have had to call upon several youngsters in recent games.

However, as many of them remain in contention for the game against United, their preparations have been dealt a major blow by Storm Eunice.

Leeds' U23 side were due to take on Brighton in Premier League 2 on Friday night, but a red weather warning meant the game had to be postponed.

Having already headed down to the south coast, players who would have been involved have also missed out on a chance to fine-tune their preparations in training, though Bielsa may still be forced to call them up to the senior side for the game against United.

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