Every word from Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch's pre-Manchester City press conference

Leeds had ten first team players missing for last night’s 4-2 defeat at home to AS Monaco, after which assistant boss Rene Maric revealed that there was illness in camp which had led to a number of first-team players sitting out the defeat to Monaco

None of Tyler Adams, Illan Meslier, Liam Cooper, Mateusz Klich, Stuart Dallas, Luis Sinisterra, Crysencio Summerville, Jack Harrison, Patrick Bamford or Rodrigo made the match-night squad against Monaco for which young duo Archie Gray and Sonny Perkins were also missing.

But Adams has been given extra time of due to his heavy involvement at the World Cup and is suspended for the return to action against City whilst Dallas, Sinisterra, Summerville, Bamford and Gray have all been recovering from injuries.

Meslier has been ill with glandular fever whilst Maric revealed that Rodrigo had experienced tightness and was therefore not risked against Monaco.

It’s been a long old while but we are fnally back with a Premier League pre-match press conference. Jesse Marsch is speaking to the media at 1.30pm and we will bring you everything that is said here.

Awaiting Jesse Marsch

“Merry Christmas everyone. Yesterday we didn’t have a bunch of guys in the mix because of a few little injuries and then we had a sickness kind of going around the team. Klichy was sick and we had a few other guys sick the night before the day of the match but we are hopeful that everyone can be healthy and be back in training this week with exception to Stuart (Dallas) who actualy had another surgery yesterday to kind of clean some things up and it felt good that that surgery was successful. And then Luis Sinisterra is making great progress and we feel like he is on track. We have to be a little bit cautious with this injury but we are hopeful that in a couple of weeks he can be back in training but we are hopeful that everybody else is back i ntraining this week. We will wait and see but hopefully we can get healthy and fit and ready for the start of the season again.”

“There has been inquiry for Mateusz. But I think from all sides, we’re still cautious about thinking that it might be time for him to leave. I think he’s still been really important here. One of the interesting things is is he’s played the fifth most matches for me since I’ve been here. He has played 25 of 28 games since I’ve been here so for me, he’s one of my favourite personalities of anyone I’ve ever coached and we have a really good relationship and we’ve been open with each other in all these moments along the way and so I’m not sure again that it’s the time for him to leave. But obviously, with the 25 of 28 games, they haven’t all been starts and I know that sometimes players would like to play a little bit more. I think we’ve had good dialogue about his role within the team and continued role within the team so I think that that’s not necessarily set in stone and he’s obviously a guy that I still very much like and we think is still a big part of this team.”

“I think I mentioned maybe two months agao that Cree was knocking on the door a little bit and that I had to at some point throw him into the mix more. I talked about Willy, Sam Greenwood, obviously Joffy is another guy that has played a lot of matches since I have been here but obviously Joffy is always pushing and I think that now Mateo from the younger group is the next guy that I think with the 21s has performed really well within, has trained really well with us and is asking questions of myself and the staff about what his continued role shall be and will be. He has done really well and we will see what the next month brings. He has scored a lot of goals (in PL2) and when he scores he has scored a few hat-tricks and he can score in bunches.”

“Here’s how I want to deal with this transfer window...Obviously we are being active and Victor and Andrea and everybody is hard at work behind the scenes. But I want to avoid talking about it just because it becomes a lightning rod and everybody wants to draw attention to that and I need to keep our attention squarely on our group and our progress. You are going to hear more ‘I am not talking about it’ this time around then last time.”

“Rught now it’s just looking at Man City and I would have hoped that more of the Man City players would have gone deeper in the tournament! But obviously the tournament is so competitive that it’s not easy. But they just have such a great squad and, for me, the manager in the world, a very difficult playing style to prepare for and then when you introduce the quality that they have on the pitch it becomes a monumental task. The good thing about our team now is that we are not afriad of the biggest opponents and we have proven that not only can we play with them on the day but that we can find ways to get points so we’ll use that motivation but we will also have to have very clear match plan and discipline and execution on the day to give ourselves a chance and we know that. But I feel like the first day we got together, I said the standard of everything we do from here on in has to be with Man City, the best team in the world, in mind - one of the best teams in the world and and I think the attention to detail and concentration from the group has been such for such a challenge so we’re excited.”

“No. Coops had a minor calf injury and Jack Harrison had a small adductor injury. They should be training this week.”

“He has a sort of a test tomorrow morning where they kind of do some internal checking and then if he is cleared which they typically think - it will be four weeks by that point that he will be back in training - but he has been active. With glandular fever it’s two things - it is modifying so they don’t get chronic fatigue and it’s also making sure that they have no contact so that when they have swelling that they are not risking any damage. But he has felt really good and I expect him to be in full training.”