“Step by step
Heart to heart
Left, right, left
We all fall down.”
Just like the ‘Toy Soldiers’ in Martika’s 1989 classic song, Leeds United’s players seemingly continue to fall down – the latest being Pontus Jansson.
It has been a campaign that has, just 17 games in, seen Leeds United perform admirably to climb to 3rd in the Sky Bet Championship table. From sparkling in early season, to threatening throughout (apart from Saturday just gone), the Whites have done it with the most thin of thin squads.
This trimmed and pared down squad has been at the insistence of new manager Marcelo Bielsa who, in all honesty, has come in to Elland Road and reinvigorated what was a pretty mediocre Leeds outfit on last season’s showing. It has been a philosophy that has been, and is being, severely tested.
Striker Patrick Bamford, a long-term injury absentee has now been joined on the treatment table by right-back Luke Ayling. Throw centre-back/right-back Gaetano Berardi into the mix and you are looking at the very reason Stuart Dallas is filling in as the right-sided anchor of the back line.
Well, now Leeds United can add another body of concern to the list in influential centre-back Pontus Jansson. The big Swede has pulled out of the Sweden squad for upcoming games against Turkey and Russia.
Pontus Jansson flies back to Leeds from international duty with Sweden due to a foot injury sustained in the defeat to West Brom . He was in the squad to face Turkey and Russia. #lufc
— Adam Pope (@apopey) November 12, 2018
Whilst the prognosis hasn’t been expounded upon, it still being in the ether, you can bet that it won’t be good. With the injuries being treated at Elland Road, and those having returned to the fold, it just seems that the Whites can’t catch a stroke of injury luck. That being said, the good news is that the international break could come to the benefit of the Whites if the injury is not that severe.
Until further news though, it seems it is a case of ‘left right left we all fall down’ for Leeds United players at the moment.