Liam Cooper provides encouraging update on Leeds United's fitness levels as Whites eye Championship return

Championship front-runners Leeds acted quickly to effectively 'work from home' even before Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the country on lockdown on March 23 in the country's fight against coronavirus.

By then, United's players had already been training from home for the previous week with the Whites squad following individual training programmes and diet plans, weighing in every morning and submitting body fat and weight details.

Ten weeks later, United's squad finally returned to 'tailored training' at Thorp Arch on Monday, following government advice by adhering to strict social distancing measures and the EFL’s Return to Training protocols after testing took place across the division for COVID-19.

The EFL are now hoping to resume Championship action next month and play the division's remaining fixtures behind closed doors with a view to ending the season by July 31.

The EFL had been looking at the weekend of June 20 as a possible starting point and Cooper says his squad have returned already close to full fitness following their dedicated work at home.

Whites head coach Marcelo Bielsa's murderball sessions, says Cooper, fast-paced matches where the ball is continually put back into play, will do the rest and put United's fitness at the ceiling of the levels that Bielsa demands.

"I'd probably say we are probably at 85 or 90 per cent at the minute," said Cooper.

"And that's running fitness.

"Obviously when you go into a game situation and there is contact and you are up against bodies and the intensity, we will get that in the murderball.

"But as running goes I would say we are at 90 per cent full fitness at the minute and obviously in the coming weeks when we can start doing group sessions and contact, that's when we will get the extra ten per cent and be ready to go."

Assessing if United's fitness would give them an edge if and when action finally resumes, Cooper said: "I hope so.

"But football games aren't won solely with fitness so we have got to polish our tools again, get familiar with the style again and I am sure we will, it doesn't leave you.

"We will just polish those tools and crack on.

"We can't wait to get going, we are champing at the bit to get going and hopefully that won't be too much longer."