Stuart Dallas will be counting down the days until he is given the green light to head out on to the field with his teammates once more. The Northern Irishman hasn’t been seen in a Leeds United shirt since fracturing his femur in a challenge with Jack Grealish back in April.
He underwent surgery in the days that followed and he has been working his way through a long and arduous recovery process with the Thorp Arch physios ever since. Dallas was pictured running on Leeds’ training ground back in August, a huge sign of progress just a few months after going under the knife and over the last couple of months he has been working to rebuild his fitness and build up his leg strength once more.
As such, Dallas has regularly been spotted in the Whites’ gym, going through resistance exercises with a conditioner watching on closely. However, just seven months on from the injury, it seems the 31-year-old is on the comeback trail and Marsch is hopeful of seeing him back on the pitch before the end of the year.
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“Stuart's making great progress as well and we'll see how that goes,” the head coach confirmed as he provided a fitness update prior to the club’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur. “But maybe we can get him on the pitch at some point towards the end of December, early January.”
Of course, after spending so long on the sidelines, Dallas’ return to action will be managed, with Marsch set to bring him back into the action progressively. But, his fitness status will come as a welcome boost for the head coach, who also confirmed that Adam Forshaw would have been ready to play this week had it not been for the World Cup break.
If Dallas can continue his rate of progress and tick off the last few boxes in his recovery, it’s not unreasonable to suggest he could still have a sizeable say on how this season goes for the Whites. His versatility gives Marsch options, too, and that’s just what he’ll need when the action returns and the campaign begins to gather pace with Premier League matches coming thick and fast alongside the prospect of an FA Cup run.
He spent a majority of last season at left-back which can still be considered a problem position for United, despite the fine form of Pascal Struijk. However, his ability to play at right-back, in the middle of the park and even further forward, having done so on the odd occasion previously, makes him valuable to the American.
Dallas still has plenty of hoops to jump through before he gets the thumbs up to pull on a white shirt once more, but Marsch will certainly be keeping a keen eye on his recovery.
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