Leeds United have suffered another injury blow ahead of their Premier League game against Chelsea on Saturday afternoon.
What’s the story?
Having been sidelined previously, Patrick Bamford admitted that his recovery from injury was dragging out longer than he initially expected, revealing: “It’s okay. It’s a little bit slow. It is (getting better), day by day. It’s just taking a little bit longer than I first thought.
“I think the thing that has got under my skin a little bit this time is that I anticipated I would be back in four weeks and the fact that it has taken longer than that is a little bit hard to get my head around. But now I am seeing improvements.”However, following his comeback and last-gasp equaliser against Brentford last week, it appears that his return has been very much short-lived, with a statement on the club’s website calling into doubt his status for the match at Stamford Bridge today.It read: “Patrick Bamford suffered a hamstring injury during last Sunday’s Premier League game against Brentford at Elland Road. The evolution of the injury is subject to daily assessment.”Huge blowGiven that Bamford was Leeds’ top scorer last season with 17 goals, it’s no surprise that the Whites have really struggled in the final third to start this Premier League campaign – they’ve managed just 15 goals from their opening 15 top-flight games in 2021/22.Former Leeds striker Noel Whelan recently voiced his concern about the kind of impact that Bamford’s absence from this side would have. He said: “It was one of my biggest fears. How can we live life without Patrick playing from when he’s the one player that really strings everything together up front?”He runs in behind, he runs the channels, takes centre-halves out of positions. His energy, his work right across the backline in the opposition’s defence. There’s not a player like him at the club. That was my worry, if anything did happen, which it has done now. We have seen that difficult side of the game going forward.”The £35k-a-week earner’s absence is a massive blow just a week after marking his return with a priceless goal. not least with Leeds travelling to face one of the Premier League title contenders in Chelsea.Meanwhile, Marcelo Bielsa must finally give this starlet a chance…