Daniel Farke's Leeds United injury updates on striker trio plus Tyler Adams, Jack Harrison and Sam Greenwood with eight or nine out

Farke was already without six players through injury for last weekend’s final pre-season friendly at Hearts for which Tyler Adams, Jack Harrison, Junior Firpo, Cody Drameh, Sam Greenwood and longer-term absentee Stuart Dallas were all missing.

The new Whites boss then lost both of his strikers in the 1-0 win at Tynecastle as Georginio Rutter was forced off with a core muscle injury before his replacement Patrick Bamford later injured his hamstring.

Speaking at Friday’s pre-match press conference, Farke revealed that neither player would be available this weekend and that a third striker in Mateo Joseph had now picked up a fresh injury having rolled his ankle in training this week.

"Sadly, we have had during the last seven days some injuries,” said Farke. “Patrick Bamford has got a hamstring injury. He won’t return before the first international break so he will miss definitely the next games.

"Georginio Rutter looks slightly better. He’s got a core injury but he will definitely also miss out the game on Sunday and also the next cup game. We hope that he would then return as quick as possible so we hope that he's also able to play a few games before the International break and I think this will work out.

“Sadly. also bad news, was Mateo Joseph because he rolled his ankle on Wednesday in training and we feared a lot because yesterday he was on crutches. But it looks better right now than it was two days ago. He will definitely miss the next three to four weeks but it was a ligament damage. No surgery is needed but he will also definitely miss out the next games.”

Asked later about Greenwood, Harrison and firstly Adams, Farke said of Adams: “ He has improved after we spoke the last time, two weeks ago. I think Tyler's hopefully not too far away from returning back to team training. With Jack, it will last perhaps even a bit longer. I spoke about it, I just expect them to be really in the mix of competitive games after the international break.

“Hopefully Tyler can return earlier and get back to team training but he was out for such a long time. He needs also bits of training. It's not like, ‘okay, he’s back into training and then just after six hours he can play the first competitive game’. He needs a few days of training.

"It will be the same as Jack so I expect them just to be really in the mix after the first international break. Sam Greenwood is more or less the same, so much improved. I hope he's back in training in a couple of weeks. I would say he is in the final stages of his rehab.”

Firpo is also known to be out until September but there was no update on Drameh who has recently been sidelined with what was considered a seven-day hamstring injury. His situation means that either eight or nine are out injured this weekend. Farke could not provide a timeframe for midfielder Dallas’ return from the femoral fracture sustained towards the end of the 2021/22 campaign.