Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa has confirmed that forward Tyler Roberts is among a quartet of players who look almost certain to miss out if the club make it to the Championship play-off final this season.
The 20-year-old established himself as a regular among the senior side at Elland Road, operating as a striker, a winger and an attacking midfielder in his 31 appearances across all competitions and was last seen walking off at half time in the dramatic clash against Aston Villa.
Having picked up an injury blow, Bielsa has revealed that he is not going to feature against Derby County on Wednesday and it would be unlikely to see him in the final if they make it.
Asked about the availability of Ezgjan Alioski and Roberts at his pre-game press conference, Bielsa told LUTV live on their app (13/05, 12:10): “They won’t be available for this Wednesday’s game, I couldn’t tell for the future.
“In the case if we have another game (the play-off final) after (Derby) it will be difficult to have these players – Adam Forshaw, Ezgjan Alioski, Leif Davis, Tyler Roberts – back.”
Opinion
There might well be some Leeds fans out there who do not think this is necessarily a bad thing, but you can be sure that Bielsa would rather have a fully fit squad at his disposal going into one of, perhaps two, of the club’s biggest games in recent history. Roberts missed a couple of gilt edged chances in their final few games which saw them let automatic promotion slip through their fingers, so you can imagine the player himself would love to make amends for his errors by helping the club to success through the play-offs. Instead it looks as though he is going to be forced to watch on from the sidelines for the rest of the season and he, as well as the other absentees, will have their fingers and toes crossed their teammates can get the job done. It is not going to be easy, but then again, when do Leeds do things the simple way?