Leeds United key man has 'chance' of making Leicester City game in unexpected boost

The Whites were without Bamford, along with Pascal Struijk, Jaidon Anthony, Sam Byram, Karl Darlow and Stuart Dallas at Plymouth last weekend. Bamford suffered a calf injury in the warm-up prior to Leeds' win at Swansea City and has now missed two games, but could make an unexpected comeback this week. Anthony, who recently suffered the loss of his mother Donna, will definitely be available to Daniel Farke again, having sat out the Plymouth game for personal reasons.

There's good news too on Struijk, whose groin injury, first sustained in December, proved far more complicated than the club initially hoped and the two weeks they saw him missing has turned into two months. The defender has had the all clear from doctors to increase the intensity of his training efforts and can finally begin to eye a return to sessions with his team-mates.

Byram [hamstring] is not yet available for Farke's consideration, Darlow has already returned to team training and Dallas continues to work on his rehabilitation from a fractured femur and two-year absence.

"Jaidon is back in training and available, good news," said Farke on Wednesday. "Karl is back in the main part of team training, definitely not far away to be reinvolved. Some good news for him. Right now it's down to him to reach match sharpness before we call him back into the squad. With Sam I expect him to be back in training next week, he'll definitely miss this game."

Farke's big hope this week is that centre-forward Bamford can play some part, having returned to fitness, the starting XI and goalscoring form in January.

"Patrick has developed in a positive way, much better in the last days," said Farke. "Perhaps not realistic he's involved Friday, we have 48 hours but he has not trained with the squad so far. It could be he's involved in training on Thursday and then he's at least a topic. He definitely will be available for next week but a tiny little chance he could be back sooner."

Bamford himself is raring to go, according to Farke, but Leeds will exercise caution given so many games remain on the fixture list.

"Patrick is always desperate to play, he would come with one leg in order to play. So do all my players. He's highly motivated to return back to the squad but we won't do anything stupid. It's not a cup final at the end of the season when you can take risks. We need him for the upcoming games, he was crucial for us. There's a few percentages and he's experienced enough to do nothing stupid. We'll see how the next 48 hours will develop."

There's good news on Struijk too, who could be back in team training within two weeks or so. Farke said: "Pascal is allowed to extend his training load and to make him hopefully ready to join team training. The doctors mentioned that over the next two, two and a half weeks we have to build him up and then if everything works, he can be back in team training. I just expect him to be back available after the international break, if he rejoins us in team training."