'No real injury' - Leeds United and Daniel Farke baffled by player doubt for Southampton finale

Injections have been used as a last resort to rid Patrick Bamford of a knee bruise that has dogged him for more than a week. What’s most perplexing for Leeds United is scans show no real injury to the striker’s leg, despite the swelling and pain he is in.

Bamford travelled to Loftus Road last week, but was left out of Daniel Farke’s squad because of the discomfort he was in. The manager had initially expected his number nine to be in training from no later than Monday, but there is some doubt whether he even trains fully today, 24 hours before kick-off.

Farke and the medical team are surprised Bamford has not yet returned, but the problem is in an area which is difficult to treat manually and new measures were used yesterday. Even if Bamford does return to training on Friday, there is no guarantee his boss feels he can start against Southampton after missing so much work since the Middlesbrough win.

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“We also expected him to be back earlier, if I'm honest, because there is no damage on the scan and no real injury, but the bruise affects the ligament and, for that, he's still not capable of stretching his leg,” said Farke. “We tried everything in the last days, also today (Thursday) with some injection therapy.

“It was also a bit of a surprise we are not capable of getting this bruise out of his knee, but it seems to be an area on the knee where it's difficult to be treated manually. We tried right now to go the other route, to work with some injections.

“We hope it helps. I hope there is a chance he will return back to team training tomorrow. If he's capable of doing this, then we have a chance to have him available for Saturday.

“I'm not sure if he’s then really ready to start the game because he has missed a bit too much in the recent days, but we try everything. It was also for us a bit of a surprise because there is no major injury.

“It's more like, how should I label it, really unlucky because it's happened during the game, he had a sliding tackle against the post. No one can be blamed for it and we try everything in order to have him back available.”