Leeds United news: Daniel Farke issues positive injury news despite striker hand fracture blow

Leeds United will now be ramping up their preparations for Friday night's clash with Leicester City. The Whites are hoping to reduce the 14-gap between themselves and the leaders, the Foxes, who have only failed to win one game so far this term.

Daniel Farke's men have been in good form themselves over recent weeks, and they comfortably saw off Huddersfield Town last time out to bounce back from a defeat to Stoke City. As attention turns to Leicester, we have rounded up all the latest news and transfer rumours surrounding Elland Road.

Leicester injury issues

Leicester City will be without a number of players for Friday night's clash with Leeds. The Foxes may be in fine form, but they have had to manager a number of injuries of late.

And while they will be boosted by the return of Yunus Akgun, they will remain without Tom Cannon, Wilfried Ndidi, Dennis Praet, Will Alves and Callum Doyle. The quick turnaround won't help the Foxes, with this game coming a day earlier than the usual Saturday fixtures, but it might help Leeds in their bid to hand the East Midlands club only their second defeat of the season.

Leeds injury boost

Leeds could welcome back one of their long-term injury absentees on Friday night when they visit Championship leaders Leicester City.

Speaking about Junior Firpo in his pre-match press conference, Farke said: "Junior Firpo after his long-term injury he's been in training for 10 days. This week is good for him, the first proper training week, before it was just travelling and playing games. It's difficult for players coming back from long-term injuries. He's edging closer and closer, it's definitely good news. He's available if we call him up, he's in the mix. We'll see. It's definitely progress.”

However, Farke did confirm striker Joe Gelhardt had sustained a hand fracture in training and would be out for some weeks, potentially more if surgery is required.

“He had a hand fracture yesterday in training and we wait for some further assessment,” the manager said. “He will definitely miss out at least a couple of weeks so we need for further assessment, if he perhaps needs a surgery that would rule him out for even longer. But this will happen in the next days and he's definitely not a topic for this game.”

Keeping fringe players busy

Leeds manager Daniel Farke admits there is a slim possibility the likes of Charlie Cresswell and other fringe first-team players will be permitted to appear for the Under-21s this weekend.

“Once we have a bit tricky schedule and we play [every] three days, we are careful to send too many players into the U21s,” he told the YEP ahead of Friday night’s double-header.

He added: “We make a decision day-to-day. I think it’s important with those players likely to be involved in first-team games, to be a bit more careful with game-time in 21s. We have to make pragmatic decisions."