Vital Leeds At Hull City, United’s injured player makes two Whites alterations.
A key Leeds United figure returns from injury for tonight’s Championship clash at Hull City for which Whites boss Daniel Farke has made two changes to his side.
Whites skipper Liam Cooper will sit on the Leeds bench for this evening’s match against the Tigers (kickoff: 7.45pm) despite missing the first weekend’s 2-2 draw at home to Cardiff City due to a ruptured plantar fascia.
Prior to Sunday’s play at Millwall, Cooper resumed training last week, but he was not included in the matchday squad for the weekend matchup against the Lions. This evening, Dan James and Jamie Shackleton replace Crysencio Summerville and Sam Byram in the Leeds starting lineup.
In addition to Cooper, Whites manager Daniel Farke still had five players unavailable for the match on Sunday at The Den: Patrick Bamford, Junior Firpo, Stuart Dallas, who has been out for a longer period of time, and summer acquisition Djed Spence.
Spence, on loan from Tottenham, is considered a major suspect for the clash after suffering a knee injury in training. The full-back previously missed some training sessions for personal reasons. Leeds then revealed on Monday that Spence had damaged his side ligaments and was likely to be out of action for up to eight weeks, although the problem did not require surgery.
Farke provided further squad updates in his press conference against Hull on Tuesday afternoon, in which he revealed Bamford has returned to training with the squad but it is too early to take part in the match against the Tigers. Farke also revealed that Firpo is still training privately as he continues his return from a hip problem. The Whites boss is also awaiting the status of midfielder Ethan Ampadu, who came off the bench in Sunday’s 3-0 win over Millwall, but Ampadu starts and continues at center alongside Archie Gray, 17. years old, in the position of central midfielder.
Charlie Cresswell, who provides room for Cooper’s return to the Whites bench, will not be part of the matchday squad. Along with backup goalkeeper Karl Darlow, the bench also includes Glen Kamara, Ilia Gruev, Jaidon Anthony, Ian Poveda, and Joe Gelhardt.
Tigers manager Liam Rosenior has made two adjustments to his Hull team, giving goalkeeper Ryan Allsop his first start in goal in place of Matt Ingram, who is moved to the bench.
Ruben Vinagre is also replaced by Cyrus Christie for a club led by former Whites player Lewie Coyle. Ozan Tufan, a Turkish international, is back from injury and will sit on the bench.
Allsop; Christie; Jones; Greaves; Coyle; Seri; Slater; Delap; Twine; Philogene; Connolly are the Hull City players. Ingram, Vinagre, McLoughlin, Tufan, Allahyar, Traoré, Morton, Lokilo, and Smith are available as substitutes.
Meslier; Ayling, Rodon, Struijk, Shackleton; Ampadu, Gray; James, Gnonto; Piroe, Rutter are the Leeds United players. Darlow, Byram, Cooper, Kamara, Gruev, Poveda, Summerville, Anthony, and Gelhardt are available as substitutes.
