Kemar Roofe provides Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds United with a welcome dilemma - can Patrick Bamford thrive under pressure?

Roofe’s goalscoring kept him in vogue for several months but injury has done the rest, depriving Bielsa of one player or the other – and occasionally both – for most of the year. Tomorrow’s game at Birmingham City is only the sixth Championship fixture since the end of August when Roofe and Bamford will appear in the same squad.

Bamford has suffered more severely, held back by two knee ligament injuries, but a similar ailment sustained by Roofe in February pushed him to the margins at the precise moment when Bamford’s season was about to get going.

Bielsa finally has the choice of both again this weekend, although Roofe’s inclusion in the travelling squad for Birmingham is a quicker comeback than United’s head coach would normally have allowed.

Bielsa returned Bamford to the fray in early February without testing him in the Under-23s first and Roofe is following the same path in the absence of a development-squad fixtures until Monday.

“There isn’t a game this week,” said Bielsa, who invariably asks recovering players to test their fitness with the academy first, “but he’s going to be in the squad. Roofe is healthy.”

The refusal to limit Roofe’s involvement any further, two months after he tweaked a knee against Swansea City, is indicative of the fact that United’s Championship promotion bid is very close to do-or-die.

The sense of urgency seemed similar when Bielsa hurried back Bamford for what was a top-of-the-table game at home to Norwich City on February 3. “I don’t want you to play 23s,” Bielsa told Bamford.

“I want you to be involved against Norwich.”

Were Roofe to be as sharp and in full flow as he was at his peak earlier in the term, there might be a question mark over Bamford’s starting place up front tomorrow. As it is, Bielsa – fiercely loyal to players and rarely swayed by individual matches – is likely to retain him as a lone centre-forward in spite of Bamford’s unproductive outing against Millwall last weekend.

The forward missed a first-half penalty, driving it against the legs of Millwall goalkeeper David Martin, but it counted against him less than a laboured performance over 90 minutes which failed to make the visiting defence sweat.

Bamford was critical of himself but Bielsa showed no inclination to make a change at St Andrews.

“The work we’ve done with him in training has been normal,” Bielsa said. “Patrick Bamford is a very serious player and he takes responsibility for the work we do during the week.

“He has a very strong mind and his opinion is true, maybe it (Millwall) was not his best game. But his level of motivation is the same.”

Roofe is the club’s leading scorer with 14 goals, though Pablo Hernandez is closing in on him after claiming his 11th and 12th of the season during a frantic clash with Millwall.

Tomorrow Roofe would be coming up against a team managed by the coach who brought him to Elland Road from Oxford United in 2016, Garry Monk, but he has been missing for seven weeks and is likely to be kept on the bench by Bielsa, unless circumstances call for his introduction.

“Kemar Roofe has had a long period without playing,” Bielsa said.

“He couldn’t play any games with the Under-23s to help him so we’ll have to see how fast he can adapt with the team.

“Training helps us to know this but the Under-23s’ games are a higher test and the most important test is the minutes he has in the first team. The only thing we have for him just now is training. But he’s a necessary player for us. Roofe’s shown before what he can add to the team. It’s important to have a player who gives you the options he gives us.”

Bielsa finds himself short of options at left-back after losing Barry Douglas to season-ending knee injury.

Douglas ruptured a medial ligament in the second half against Millwall, hurt at a time when Bielsa had no substitutions left, and limped through to the final whistle to avoid Leeds finding themselves a man short in a tight and nervy contest.

The injury required surgery on Wednesday and Douglas, at the end of his first year at Elland Road, will take up to 12 weeks to recover, a spell of rehabilitation which will run close to the start of pre-season training.

“We’re sorry because we want him with us but we appreciate how brave he was in the last game,” Bielsa said.

“He had a serious injury but he finished the game and it’s something I won’t forget about.”

Douglas had been a substitute against Millwall, thrown on as a replacement for the versatile Gjanni Alioski after a first half in which Neil Harris’ team found holes in the left side of Bielsa’s line-up.

Bielsa admitted that Alioski – ever present in the Championship so far – had shown signs of fatigue after time away with Macedonia during the international break but the defender is expected to keep his place tomorrow, with Douglas no longer available.

“Alioski had played two games in the international break,” Bielsa said.

“His performance – the distance covered and going from attack to defence – was the same as he always does but I saw less power and speed in him.

“Without this, he’s at a disadvantage because his play needs that type of level.”