How Marcelo Bielsa plans to integrate Izzy Brown into the Leeds United squad now he is fully fit

Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa has revealed that loanee Izzy Brown is now fully fit following a year-long lay-off due to injury.
Izzy Brown in action for Brighton last season.Izzy Brown in action for Brighton last season.
Izzy Brown in action for Brighton last season.

Brown, who joined the Whites in the summer on a season-long loan deal from Chelsea, is finally fully fit after tearing his ACL last January during a stint with Premier League side Brighton.

The 22-year-old made his comeback for the Whites Under-23s in late November before breaking down with a hamstring strain in mid-December which ruled him out for a further month over the festive period.

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The Blues playmaker returned to action on Monday once more as he bagged both goals in a Professional Development League victory over Crewe Alexandra at Thorp Arch.

Bielsa though says that he plans to integrate him slowly in his first-team set-up at Elland Road by utilising Carlos Corberan's side to build-up his match sharpness before he is finally available to make his long-awaited Whites senior debut.

"He is fit," Bielsa revealed on Thursday ahead of this weekend's trip to Stoke City.

"The figures that we take into account when a player hasn't played for a year, this figure shows that the player needs six games to recover his sport fitness and be to be available for a high competition game.

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"With the passing of the games we will see if six games is enough, if it is too much or if it is not enough."

Bielsa was also quizzed over how much of an impact he believed Brown could make on the Whites season following such a lengthy absence, saying: "Brown will have to show that he can play. Not to me obviously, he will have to prove himself.

"I think he has been elected the best player of the Championship some years ago (at Huddersfield).

"I am taking this example to show that he already has shown his skills, when you don't play for a year you have doubts about the level of a player, it's not about confidence because Izzy Brown is very confident, it's not about work because he is a very serious professional.

"But the idea is to take his willingness and his confidence and his work to be at the place where he has been in the past and this is a work that we are all involved in and we have hope about it."