'No gift' - Daniel Farke outlines Leeds United plan for Spurs loanee Djed Spence and Whites 'if'

Tottenham Hotspur right-back Spence joined Leeds on a season-long loan at the end of August but the 23-year-old has played just nine minutes of football for the Whites after injuring his knee in September. Former England under-21s international ace Spence damaged his lateral collateral ligament following a challenge in training and the issue was expected to keep the defender sidelined for around eight weeks.

Spence was then hit with tonsillitis and a cold during the final stages of his rehab but the Spurs loanee re-appeared for the first time on the Whites bench for Wednesday night’s Championship hosting of Swansea City. Spence was an unused substitute as Leeds recorded a 3-1 success, after which Farke revealed that Spence had impressed in training, adding that there was now a good chance of game time over the upcoming weeks given the right concentration and focus.

Asked if Spence’s place on the bench was a reflection of how much he had recovered from his injury, Farke explained: “Yes, it was no gift. Djed is 11 or 12 days back in training and you can see him growing more or less from training session to training session.

"He also gained some fitness obviously after such a long-term injury and also after such a difficult pre-season for him so he can't be there with 100 per cent. But we got the feeling he deserves already to be in the squad because the last days and training he was quite on it and it was quite impressive so for that we decided to have Djed as an option also with us.

“If he works that concentrated and focused, especially on this fitness level, because we don't have to talk about this potential and his quality, he has proved this on this level, but if you work further on that, focused and concentrated in training each and every day and also to gain more and more rhythm he has also good chances in the upcoming weeks to be involved with game time.”