Beren Cross of Leeds Live recently took part in a Q&A session with some of the club’s supporters during which he discussed the fitness of Liam Cooper.
The club’s captain didn’t feature during Leeds’ narrow defeat at Anfield on the opening day of the season. Despite scoring three goals on their travels, Marcelo Bielsa’s side conceded two penalties and lost 4-3 to the champions.
Cross was asked whether the 29-year-old would be fit to return to the side when they take on Fulham at Elland Road this coming Saturday and here is how he responded:
‘All the noises have been positive on Cooper. He even travelled to Liverpool for a late fitness test, which underlines how close he felt he was to making it. Would not expect him to feature against Hull, but Fulham is a very real possibility, according to Bielsa.’ (Liveblog, 14:10, 15/09/20)
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Based on the journalist’s response, it seems the centre-back has a good chance of being passed fit to feature this weekend.
Cooper made 38 appearances in the Championship for Bielsa’s Whites last season, that plus the fact he has been trusted with the captain’s armband shows you how highly he is regarded by his boss.
Last season, the Scotland international was awarded an average performance rating of 7.11/10 and named the man of the match on two occasions (as per WhoScored).
It could be argued that Leeds’ new central defender Robin Koch struggled at Anfield last weekend and that is backed up by the fact he was given an underwhelming performance rating of 6.18/10, taking that into account, we can assume the Leeds fans will be pleased to see Cooper back as soon as possible.