During Marcelo Bielsa’s press conference he made a rather nerve-racking comment about Leeds United centre-back Liam Cooper.
When Bielsa was giving injury updates he said this about the Scotsman: “We don’t know if Liam Cooper is going to play yet, we will have to see.”
Cooper has played 12 matches in the Championship, totalling up to 930 minutes for Leeds so far this season. But with him now having no estimated return date, Whites fans should be concerned about how long they may be missing the 28-year-old. His club form also saw him play in two European Championship matches for Scotland, against Belgium and Russia in September.
The centre-back has an impressive average WhoScored rating of 7.02, which is the fourth-highest in the entire Leeds squad, meaning that Cooper is going to be a big miss for the Peacocks, and they will have to rely even more on Ben White who’s also been playing very well.
The Scotsman makes on average 1.7 tackles per 90 minutes, which is his third-highest average since joining Leeds.
Verdict
Hopefully, Bielsa will give a more in-depth update once the medical team have had a proper look at the 28-year-old, but until then, the Peacocks are going to be without a very useful centre-back.
Former Whites loan man Izzy Brown has already managed to produce an impressive six assists this season, so Leeds will have to do a job on him to keep his production levels to a minimum, which could be made even more difficult without Liam Cooper. So, Bielsa will have a big decision to make should the Scotsman miss the clash.