Leeds United welcome one back into pre-Coventry City training as Farke heralds good news

Farke will take the same squad into the game that went to Sunderland on Tuesday night and lost 1-0, after concerns over illness in the camp eased over the last couple of days. Sam Byram, Junior Firpo and Jamie Shackleton all missed the game at Sunderland through injury, the latter with a glute problem.

Both Byram and Firpo are currently out with hamstring problems and Farke has previously said Byram is expected back in the new year while Firpo was expected to return to team training sooner. Patrick Bamford made it back into the matchday squad having had to sit out the Blackburn Rovers game through illness, and was spotted entering the Stadium of Light wearing a face mask. Others in the squad were also struggling with a cold, according to Farke, but no one else has succumbed to illness and those who were suffering have now recovered.

"No, it should be the same squad," said Farke at his Friday lunchtime press conference. "Some good news with Junior Firpo, it looks like he can join us in training today. But he was out for so long in total he won't be a topic for this game. Everyone has recovered, no new flu or cold cases so for that everything is okay."

Firpo picked up a knee problem in pre-season and then experienced discomfort in his hip that kept him out of action until November. That was when Byram went down with his first hamstring issue of the season, the availability of the two left-backs overlapping just enough to allow Farke to put Firpo in as a direct replacement. But although Byram recovered from that minor strain, he has since suffered another and that has coincided with a hamstring niggle for Firpo. The ex-Barcelona man has had a severely injury-disrupted time of it at Elland Road since his 2021 arrival.