Adam Forshaw has been ruled out of the crunch Championship game against Bristol City on Saturday.
The news was confirmed in the pre-match press conference, where manager Marcelo Bielsa said that while the midfielder was “making progress” it was “slower than we thought”.
Bielsa did say that he thought that Forshaw would be back soon saying “we think his problems are almost over”.
Leeds, currently second in the Championship, face Bristol City who are sixth at Ashton Gate on Saturday.
Bielsa has named the same team that beat West Brom 4-0 last Friday, but they won’t be able to rely on Forshaw from the bench.
Adam Forshaw: "He's making progress. It is slower than what we thought but we think his problems are almost over and we will be able to rely on him soon." #lufc
— Phil Hay (@PhilHay_) March 7, 2019
OPINION
Forshaw has been a big loss for Leeds and his injury has dragged on way longer than anyone thought it would. He missed the Middlesbrough clash on February 9th, but after that Bielsa said he would be considered for the game against Swansea. He didn’t play that game and now he’s missed the following four, and there’s still no concrete return date for the player who Bielsa actually preferred ahead of Kalvin Phillips for the game against Norwich. That shows how highly Bielsa thinks of him. That was the first time Phillips had missed a game while fit all season. Leeds have a critical week ahead of them. They play play-off hopefuls Bristol City tomorrow and third-placed Sheffield United next weekend in what could be a season-defining game. In-between they play Reading on Tuesday. Six points from nine would probably be an acceptable return for most Leeds fans. Nine from nine would leave Leeds fans on cloud nine and would leave the club on the brink of a return to the Premier League.