Lee Sobot of the Yorkshire Evening Post discusses whether Patrick Bamford and Dan James will make their returns from injury for Leeds United in their play-off semi final against Norwich City.
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00:00 If they were to be back for even the second leg, obviously you'd hope them to be back
00:06 for both legs of this game against Norwich, but even the second leg, if they were back
00:08 for one of them, that's a boost in itself.
00:12 And if you can have them in, as I say, the second leg and then in the final as well,
00:17 if the leagues are together, of course, let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.
00:21 But yeah, it's a huge boost to the whole team because again, it's just more options to choose
00:25 from in the moment.
00:26 You're playing with Joel Curroe up front, Vardzal, also Colin, Matteo, Joseph, but you're
00:31 restricted a bit in what you can do when you've not got Patrick Bamford in the middle.
00:34 And also you then have to rely a lot on Somerville and Willy Nonto out wide, you've not got Dan
00:39 James who can come on as a replacement, you know, 70 minutes in, for example.
00:42 So what's the thoughts, Lee?
00:45 Are they likely to be back for any part of the playoffs?
00:47 I mean, definitely Bamford, I would hope so.
00:50 Yeah, because I mean, you've got to remember the thing is with Bamford, it was, I say only,
00:53 I don't want to say like he's sort of like belittling it or anything, but in terms of
00:56 injuries, how they sound initially, it was a badly bruised knee that he picked up at
01:00 Borough and the hope and expectation was that he would be back for the next game, you know,
01:03 that he was expected to be back training next week and pretty much press conference wise
01:07 ahead of the Southampton game, you know, even then Daniel Farke was sort of saying, you
01:10 know, I did expect him to be back, but it's been a bit more problematic than we first
01:14 thought.
01:15 So you would think if he was expected back for the Southampton game that he would definitely
01:18 be back for the Norwich game.
01:19 So I mean, you'd like to think so.
01:20 But then again, you know, sometimes these injuries can go on longer than expected.
01:24 I mean, you know, the best case in point this season has probably been Pascal Stroich.
01:27 Obviously, he went out, you know, Boxing Day at Preston and, you know, obviously Leeds
01:31 are expecting him back and then expecting him back a bit later than a bit later.
01:34 And before you know it, he's got to go for surgery and his season's over and stuff.
01:37 So these injuries can often be more complicated than first, than is, you know, than is the
01:42 case when you first see them.
01:43 But hopefully he'll be back.
01:45 Dan James, I mean, obviously that one sounded a bit different, possibly sounded a little
01:50 bit more serious.
01:51 But, you know, when the medical terms went through in terms of the injury that he has,
01:56 I think a lot of people thought that might be a season done.
01:58 But Daniel Farker did say straight away, no, we're quite hopeful he might still be back.
02:02 And this was before the club were consigned to the playoffs.
02:03 He said that, you know, there was a chance he might be back for the very last game.
02:06 So there must be strong chances of them both being back.
02:09 And yeah, I mean, you've hit the nail on the head, like having one or both of them back
02:14 would be absolutely huge.
02:15 I mean, we said when we did one of these, when Dan James got his injury and we were
02:19 worried then that it'd be a season over, I said the first thing people can say is, well,
02:22 it's OK at the moment.
02:23 Not OK, but it could be worse because he's not a starter week in, week out at the moment.
02:29 But even if he's not starting, he's huge off the bench, you know, coming on against tired
02:33 legs and stuff with his pace.
02:34 And now that he's got more of a goal input into his game and the Bamford one's just so
02:38 obvious, you know, like his hold up play.
02:40 And it just feels like that if he's not there, then at the moment, they're just a bit lost
02:45 in terms of what they do.
02:46 You know, they play Peru up front.
02:48 Obviously, you know, that doesn't seem to be working.
02:50 Routier started the season up front, but then obviously, you know, seems a bit better at
02:54 number 10.
02:55 But at the moment, you just want him to click in any way, shape or form, really.
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