Daniel Farke hails returning Leeds United player as 'crucial' with 'best shape' Whites forecast

Left back Junior Firpo has now started United's last four games upon recovering from injury and again played an important role in Wednesday night's 1-0 win against Championship visitors Norwich City. Firpo came through the full duration of a league contest for the first time since last May and Farke says the 27-year-old is finally on his way "back to his best shape".

The Whites boss has also highlighted how the experience of former Barcelona defender Firpo will be particularly "crucial" for a young Whites side who have now closed to within two points of the Championship's automatic promotion places.

Firpo has bagged four assists in United's last five league games and Farke hailed the defender's defensive impact in Wednesday night's display against the Canaries as he faced 12-goal top Norwich scorer Jonathan Rowe.

"First of all, I had to be patient because I had to wait for five months until he came back," said Farke of Firpo. "But it's important that he worked really disciplined, professional doing his rehab. You always have different injury setbacks and he never lost also the belief in himself and his body.

"We are all happy that he's back right now since four and a half weeks and also he has grown into our side because he's one of the players with experience already a lot during his playing times and he's a more mature and experienced player to have.

"This type of player in our squad it's also quite crucial and he has chipped in with many assists already in the last games and with defensive solidity against a player [Jonathan] Rowe who has 12 goals already during the season.

"It was important that he was there with defensive steel today and I'm pretty pleased that we have him back also on the way back to his best shape."