The Yorkshire Evening Post’s Lee Sobot discusses the permutations of winger Dan James potentially missing the final two games of Leeds United’s season.
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00:00 Leeds did get back to winning ways against Middlesbrough on Monday night.
00:05 That was very important. It was a bit of a thrilling game though. 4-3.
00:08 Not as comfortable as anyone in white would have wanted.
00:12 But that win did come at a bit of a cost to Dan James.
00:16 Yeah.
00:17 Picking up an abdominal muscle injury, which is not what he would have wanted with only two games left of the season.
00:22 As I say, the other three points were very important for Leeds because it helps to pile the pressure on Ipswich.
00:29 Leicester, of course, they got the win against Southampton the night afterwards.
00:32 So, you know, they're getting towards automatic promotion.
00:35 They've got a four-point gap on Leeds with only two games to play.
00:39 So if we look at Dan James' injury, what does that mean for the squad for the last two games?
00:43 You've got QPR and then Southampton.
00:46 Yeah.
00:46 Obviously, he's not going to be available for at least QPR.
00:49 So how do Leeds cope?
00:52 Yeah, well, we hope it's just two games left.
00:53 We don't want to start saying it's two games left and possibly a couple more on the end because we all know what that will mean.
00:57 But yeah, let's keep our fingers crossed it is only two games left.
01:00 And it's definitely a big blow losing Dan James.
01:02 I mean, I think the thing you can think about, sort of your instinctive thought on that injury is obviously it's a blow, but you know, he's not starting at the moment.
01:09 So you'd almost think like, well, at least it's not someone who's starting.
01:12 But that's probably a bit unfair on Dan because he's had a fantastic season and, you know, he's very, very important whether he starts or whether he comes off the bench.
01:20 I mean, obviously at the moment, Krysantziou, Somerville star man, obviously occupies one of those wide slots.
01:25 And it's almost been a case of James or Nonto for the other one.
01:27 And at the moment, Nonto is banging form, isn't he? Another goal, obviously against Borough and a very, very good display from him.
01:33 So I think those two start basically.
01:35 But Dan coming off the bench is, he's just the sort of player you want coming off the bench as well with his pace, you know, against defences when they're possibly a bit tired and stuff.
01:42 And crucially with Dan James this season, the thing he's added to his game in droves, his end product has always been lightning quick.
01:48 There's never been any doubt about that.
01:49 He's always had good skill.
01:51 But it was always just about getting that sort of, you know, that end product, like I say.
01:54 And the numbers speak for themselves.
01:55 I mean, you sort of forget that he's Leeds' top scorer this season in the league, you know, which is some going really.
02:00 13 goals, only second to star man Somerville, seven assists in there as well.
02:04 So that just shows how important he is. And he would have been very, very important, I think, for these last two games.
02:09 But, well, hopefully last two games. But I mean, you know, hopefully Leeds can get the job done without him.
02:13 Certainly, you know, fulfil their end of the bargain.
02:15 Obviously, as we'll come to in a minute, it also depends on what Ipswich do.
02:19 You know, you think Leeds would probably need to win the last two games and then just sort of cross the fingers and pray that results go,
02:25 one result at least goes their way.
02:27 But what it does do is I would say it opens up a big opportunity for Jadon Anthony,
02:31 who obviously signed for the club on loan from Bournemouth, has done promotion before with Bournemouth,
02:37 and is a very, very good player in his own right.
02:40 I think when Leeds signed him, I sort of had really high hopes for him and thought he could be like someone who could have,
02:44 you know, a massive, massive impact in terms of like hopefully driving the team to promotion.
02:48 And he's had it in sort of fits and spurts, but hasn't, you know, he's never really had a solid run in the team.
02:53 He's obviously also had, you know, an awful lot to do with personally with, you know, the sort of passing of his mum, which was obviously very, very, very sad.