BBC Sport journalist Adam Pope has claimed that it will be ‘alarming’ if Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford isn’t able to get himself fully fit soon.
With the World Cup now taking place, the Premier League season has been put on hold until December 26 – with many stars taking part in the tournament.
While Leeds have afforded their players some time off, those who are not going to Qatar will be expected to come back together to train on November 28 (via The Athletic).
At this stage, players will look to build fitness ahead of the second half of the season but Pope has outlined his concern for Bamford – who has struggled for regular minutes all season due to injury issues.
When speaking on a BBC Sport radio show, the journalist said (7:09): “It will be interesting to see, if they going to go out somewhere and have a warm weather training –which we understand that we’ll be doing – then hopefully everybody’s in there and that includes Bamford.
“I’ll be starting to get alarmed if he’s not involved. You know, is it gonna be one of those times where you think something is going to last a few weeks and ends up being months, you know, weeks again.
“That would be alarming if he’s not involved.”
TIF thoughts on Patrick Bamford and Leeds…
For the Englishman, essentially the whole of last season was a write-off due to a number of injury problems. Sadly, these woes have continued into the current campaign and have limited him to just four Premier League starts.
With that in mind, the player may well have been extremely grateful for the World Cup to pause domestic football for a number of weeks, potentially allowing him to get back to full fitness.
However, as Pope warns, initial minor injuries have developed into more serious problems in the past and with Bamford missing the last two league outings for Leeds, question marks remain over his ability to recover fully to take part in the upcoming warm weather training.
If he can’t get fit for that, you’d have to start wondering if he’ll be ready for action when the club next play competitive fixtures again in late December.
Are you worried about Patrick Bamford and his recent fitness record?
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