Chris Sutton has claimed that Pontus Jansson’s injury will be a “big blow” for Leeds United in their bid to win automatic promotion to the Premier League this season.
Jansson, 28, suffered a knee injury towards the end of the 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United on Saturday, and Leeds have since announced that the defender has pulled out of international duty with Sweden as he is set for three weeks on the sidelines.
Luckily the international break will mean the bulk of Jansson’s recovery will happen while the Whites are not playing, but it still means that he could miss the game against Millwall on March 30, and that’s a setback, according to Sutton.
“Jansson, the centre-half, got injured at the weekend. He’s out for a few weeks and that’s a big blow for them,” the ex-Norwich striker said on BBC Radio 5 Live on Monday night [08:53pm].
OPINION
Marcelo Bielsa has had to cope with a lot of his players getting injured in his first season as Leeds manager, but the Yorkshire giants are still third in the Championship standings and are serious contenders for automatic promotion. That defeat to promotion rivals Sheffield United was a blow on Saturday, but there is still plenty of time left for one of the top two to slip up and for Leeds to take advantage, so do no write off Bielsa’s men yet. They have coped with missing players like Jansson all season long and even though the 20-times Sweden international is a key player at Elland Road, he can be replaced. Kalvin Phillips or Aapo Halme might drop into the backline to partner Liam Cooper against Millwall, and although it’s not ideal, Leeds should be fine. It is lucky in a way that the international break is now underway so that Jansson can recover without having to miss many fixtures.