Thomas Christiansen has revealed that Leeds United have no plans to recall Marcus Antonsson from his loan spell at Blackburn Rovers during January but conceded the option was available to the club.
Yorkshire Evening Post reporter Phil Hay claimed on his personal Twitter account on Thursday morning that the Championship promotion hopefuls can take advantage of a clause in Antonsson’s season-long loan that allows them to bring him back to Elland Road from the start of the upcoming transfer window.
Leeds have the option to recall Antonsson in the January transfer window but are unlikely to do so. Happy at this stage to let him continue progressing with Blackburn.
— Phil Hay (@PhilHayYEP) December 14, 2017
Christiansen was asked at his weekly media briefing on Friday about Antonsson, who is in excellent form after scoring five goals in November alone to secure the League One player of the month award.
The manager did not deny that recalling the Swede is an option but revealed, as quoted on the personal Twitter account of BBC Leeds correspondent Adam Pope, that he has not discussed recalling Antonsson as he feels he has enough striker options once Pierre-Michel Lasogga is fit.
TC says he has not discussed recalling striker Marcus Antonsson early from his loan spell at Blackburn. He feels he has enough options up front once Lasogga is fit. #lufc
— Adam Pope (@APOPEY) December 15, 2017
Lasogga will be absent for a sixth consecutive match when Leeds host Norwich City in the Championship on Saturday, while Caleb Ekuban is also missing with a foot injury.
Antonsson, 26, joined Blackburn on a season-long loan in the summer after struggling to make any sort of impact in his debut Leeds campaign following his £1.5million arrival from Sweden, finding himself behind Chris Wood and Souleymane Doukara in the forward pecking order.
The Swede has responded with eight goals from 19 matches in all competitions at Rovers to provide hope he can reignite his Leeds career, where he has a contract that runs until the summer of 2019.
OPINION
Are Leeds missing a trick by ignoring the improvement made by Antonsson, who was dismissed last season as a one-dimensional operator who was too puny for the Championship and capable of only playing in a front two? The Swede has proved the doubters wrong with his transformation at Blackburn, shining in a new left-wing role which has been integral to the third-tier club’s improvement and his own receipt of the League One player of the month award for November. Leeds are not so well blessed with goalscorers and attacking flair that they can ignore the merits of Antonsson and must get him back to have a good look next summer. Can he make a similar impact in a higher division? Is he more effective out wide, where he is not required to play with his back to goal so often? These are the questions the Leeds coaching staff can answer, and they can only answer those by seeing the big-money signing up close and personal.