'Sadly...' - Leeds United boss Daniel Farke confirms double injury blow ahead of Sunderland clash

Leeds United boss Daniel Farke has confirmed that neither Max Wober nor Patrick Bamford will be available for his side’s clash with Sunderland at Elland Road on Monday evening.

The Black Cats travel to Yorkshire looking to narrow the seven-point gap between themselves and their hosts at the summit of the Championship table. For their part, the Whites have been in imperious form of late, and comfortably beat Watford 4-0 in midweek.

But if they are to record a similarly positive result against Sunderland, they will have to do so without defender Wober and centre-forward Bamford. Addressing the former’s absence in a press conference on Friday afternoon, Farke said: “We expect him just to be back more or less after the next international break in March, and he's out for six weeks.”

With regards to Bamford, he added: “Sadly the last days were not ideal in terms of his re-up process. He will need another probably ten days of individual re-up training, so he won't return back to team training before the Sheffield [United] game, and then hopefully in a couple of weeks we've got him back.”

When asked if the striker’s absence was related to a hamstring complaint, he added: “Yes, a little awareness, so obviously the final stages he needs to be there with full ability to sprint, so that's not the case yet, and for that he needs ten more days of individual re-up training, so we expect him then to join us in team training more or less after the Sheffield game.”

Aside from Wober and Bamford, Leeds are fortunate enough to be relatively injury-free, and when asked whether such a clean bill of health was rare at this advanced stage of a campaign, Farke added: “We had also a pretty good spell in the beginning of the season when many players were available, but especially during this month, January, February, March, after a long season, especially in the Championship, quite often you have to deal with a few injuries.

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“Touch wood - apart from those two, okay, Patrick, a bit longer-term injury, and with Max's ongoing problem over the season - to have everyone available is quite good, and also important and crucial. There are many games to play, and for that, of course, you want to have the players available and also in the best possible shape, and when everyone is ready to go and fit, then it's more or less the best situation you can have as a manager, yes. So apart from Max and Patrick, we've got a pretty good situation.”

The last time Sunderland played Leeds was at the Stadium of Light back in October, with the Black Cats earning a point from a 2-2 draw in bizarre circumstances after visiting goalkeeper Illan Meslier made a stoppage time blunder to gift the hosts a late goal.

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