Ally McCoist reacts to 'nightmare' Leeds United injury blow ahead of Sunderland clash

Ally McCoist has described the loss of captain Ethan Ampadu as a “nightmare” for Leeds United ahead of their trip to face Sunderland in the Championship on Friday evening.

The Black Cats host Daniel Farke’s side at the Stadium of Light in what promises to be a testing contest, but the visitors will travel to Wearside without their influential holding midfielder after he sustained a knee ligament injury in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Coventry City.

Speaking in a press conference ahead of Leeds’ midweek clash with Norwich City, Farke said: "I have to confirm it's a serious knee injury, he has damaged his lateral ligament. The doctors have recommended conservative treatment so he doesn't need surgery. It's realistic to speak about 10 weeks before he returns to team training. You would expect him to be back at some point during December and obviously he needs a bit of team training before he's available back for the games, so we expect him to be just back available at some point in January."

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And reacting to the news on talkSPORT on Tuesday morning, popular pundit McCoist made it clear just how much of a blow the injury is to both Leeds and Ampadu himself. He said: “Leeds United captain Ethan Ampadu will be out until at least January having sustained a knee ligament injury in the Championship win against Coventry. Nightmare. We’re seeing so many injuries now and the knee ligaments are the ones, ankle ligaments are the worst as you know.”

Elsewhere, more details have emerged on the knee injury that looks set to sideline Leeds defender Maximilan Wober for several weeks. The Austrian has not featured for his club since August’s EFL Cup defeat at the hands of MIddlesbrough, and has also been omitted from his country’s latest squad selection ahead of this month’s international break.

Now, as relayed by Laola1, Austria manager Ralf Rangnick has delivered a more detailed update on the exact issue which is keeping Wober on the treatment table - with surgery expected. He said: “A cyst has formed directly on the meniscus, and they will probably remove it. Last week they tried it conventionally again. But he immediately felt pain again and he’s now decided to have this operation.”

According to Laola1, the defender’s operation will take place in Innsbruck on Tuesday. It is unclear at this stage whether Wober will be back in time to play his part in November’s international break.