Leeds United: Spaniard Saiz given green light to tackle Wanderers

Samuel Saiz looks increasingly likely to be fit for Leeds' game against Bolton Wanderers.

Head coach Paul Heckingbottom left Saiz out of the Whites last match, a 2-1 defeat at home to Sheffield Wednesday, after the Spaniard carried a hamstring problem through a 2-2 draw at Reading seven days earlier. Scans revealed a slight tear in a hamstring tendon, forcing Saiz, who served a six-match ban for spitting after the turn of the year, back onto the sidelines.

Heckingbottom though revealed that the Spaniard has been back in training and could yet feature in Friday’s clash after initially being ruled out beyond the busy Easter period.

“We know he has an injury there,” confirmed Heckingbottom. It’s something we’re going to have to be conscious of. He’s got to 95 per cent speed so we’re hoping we can manage him through, especially these first couple of weeks. We know the longer we can keep him training and out with us the better he’s going to get over time.”

Stuart Dallas could feature against Bolton.

Stuart Dallas was also an injury concern for United after the midfielder dropped out of Northern Ireland’s friendly with South Korea on Saturday.

“Stuart has trained again,” added Heckingbottom. “He was touch and go after the last game as he felt a bit stiff. He went away with Northern Ireland and ended up getting a scan which revealed a bit of damage in his hip flexer.”

Heckingbottom also issued updates on club captain Liam Cooper, goalkeeper Andy Lonergan, forward Kemar Roofe and defender Laurens De Bock who’ve been sidelined for an extended period of time with respective injuries.

“Lonners is back and been training a week,” the Leeds boss added. “Coops has been back and trained all this week too, he started on Sunday. Roofey is progressing well and hopefully we can get him back in next week sometime.

Club captain Liam Cooper is well on the road to recovery.

“Laurens has a pretty damaging hamstring tear, he’s still feeling little bits of discomfort and pain so it’s difficult to put a time frame on it but he’s not short term.”

He added on the fitness of Pontus Jansson, who captained Sweden in their 1-0 defeat to Romania on Tuesday night: “I’ve just told him to get some rest and get prepared for tomorrow.”