Leeds United free agent market stance made clear by Daniel Farke amid midfield injury scan wait

But the Whites boss admits he is not a big fan of signing players who are without a club this far into the season and his first concern is to ascertain the extent of Gruev's knee problem. The Bulgarian international is due to have a scan on his knee on Wednesday evening after picking up a problem at Norwich City on Tuesday night. It follows the lateral ligament damage sustained by Gruev's midfield partner Ethan Ampadu against Coventry City on Saturday. Ampadu will be out until January and Leeds can scarcely afford to lose another defensive-minded midfielder for any significant period of time.

"First of all, we wait a bit for the outcome with Ilia's injury and how long he will be out," said Farke. "If it would be really a long-term injury I think it's one of our professional duties to be aware and also to check who is perhaps available and what we could do. If I'm really honest, I'm not a big friend of signing players who are out of contract in the beginning of October, because it means more or less they are out of team training since May. That means they are out of team training since whatever, five months. And even if you bring them in, it lasts also a while until they are really ready to go and fully fit and really could play first team football and then quite often the player who is right now injured for the next few weeks, he's even even back in perhaps and ready to go earlier than the players who are out for since five months.

"I think quite often it's a bit like a panic buy or like to pretend to do something anyhow. I think it's professional to check it, and sometimes out of coincidence or out of a special situation, there could be someone out who really suits the needs in this moment."

Farke's other concern with free agent additions is the message it gives to those waiting in the wings to fill Gruev's spot. Joe Rothwell and Ao Tanaka took the spots of Ampadu and Gruev, while teenager Charlie Crew is highly rated by the manager and has been part of the senior set-up for a while without making his breakthrough/

"If I'm honest, I'm not a big believer in doing signings in October, but let's see," he said. "So first of all, we wait a little bit and hope for for a positive outcome from the scan of Ilia and if there's really a shocking diagnosis and he is out for months, then of course, we have a look on it, but I can't confirm that we would do then something so then everything would come together - otherwise just a waste of money and a waste of energy.

"It could sometimes even be bad for the whole group, because it sends also sometimes a sign to some other players who could be then in the spotlight: 'okay, we don't trust you that much,' so it must be a big coincidence that someone is really available who could help us. So let's wait and see."

Leeds do have a deep-lying midfielder currently operating elsewhere in the Championship, in Darko Gyabi. The youngster is on loan with Plymouth Argyle and has started seven of their eight league games. Farke did not want to be drawn on the loanee, however.

"We have a look but overall I don't want to speak about players who are loaned out," he said. "I only concentrate on our group and don't want to comment too much. Fingers crossed for a good season for Darko’s development but I don't want to speak about players not with us. We have too much work to do, three games in six days, many injury problems so my focus is on the here and now."

Leeds travel to Sunderland on Friday night after a 1-1 draw with Norwich City on Tuesday in which they came from behind thanks to Largie Ramazani’s second goal for the club. Farke was without Ampadu, Daniel James, Manor Solomon and Isaac Schmidt for the midweek visit to Carrow Road and only anticipates Schmidt potentially making a return to the squad for Friday.