Massive double Leeds United fitness boost hint ahead of Coventry City clash

Leeds United pair Pascal Struijk and Junior Firpo have both hinted at their availability for this afternoon’s game against Coventry City on social media.

The left-sided defensive pair were named in Daniel Farke’s press conference injury update, with both doubtful for the visit of Coventry to Elland Road. Struijk had been struggling with a fresh groin issue while Firpo missed the first part of training this week before returning on Thursday.

Leeds were set to make late calls on the pair and while Farke was optimistic surrounding Firpo’s fitness, he held the ‘biggest question mark’ over Struijk. "We had a few problems after the last game," said Farke. "Pascal was struggling a bit with his adductors, Junior missed the first part of this week but was back in training today. It will depend on how the body reacts but I'm carefully optimistic.

"The biggest question mark is behind Pascal, even today he wasn't able to train. There's definitely a chance, I would say carefully optimistic but he needs to train tomorrow in our last session. It's the final test for him if he's available or not. It is what it is and we have to adapt to it."

Leeds face another key season, so get closer to the action with our new newsletter - Inside Elland Road with Graham Smyth

The doubtful pair have now hinted at possible involvement via social media. Struijk and Firpo both uploaded custom-made matchday graphics on their respective Instagram accounts, a regular match-day morning occurrence for those set to feature later in the day.

Their involvement would be a major boost for Leeds, who would have been worryingly short on the left side of their defence if both missed out. Max Wober is certainly unavailable for the visit of Coventry due to a knee issue, with Farke hinting surgery may be needed if there is no progress soon.

Firpo has been expected to feature but Struijk’s absence would likely have seen changes in multiple positions, with Ethan Ampadu dropping into centre-back and Ilia Gruev taking up his more natural defensive midfield role. That would leave one of Ao Tanaka or Joe Rothwell coming in alongside him.

Elsewhere, Manor Solomon remains out with his previous back injury manifesting into a hamstring issue, while Dan James is still recovering from his own hamstring injury. Patrick Bamford took a knock in training but should be in the squad.