Leeds United are set to lose striker Chris Wood to Burnley.
Leeds United manager Thomas Christiansen has told the Yorkshire Evening Post that the club have already approached strikers with the intention of replacing star striker Chris Wood.
The Whites enjoyed a fine evening on Saturday as goals from Samu Saiz and Stuart Dallas handed them an impressive 2-0 win at Sunderland, but it wasn’t a completely positive weekend.
Manager Christiansen was forced to head into the game at the Stadium of Light without star striker Chris Wood, as he is on the verge of completing a move to Premier League outfit Burnley.
Wood, 25, enjoyed a remarkable campaign last season, smashing 30 goals in all competitions – but he pulled out of the Leeds squad on Saturday, Sky Sports report that he has been undergoing a medical with Burnley ahead of a £15million switch to Turf Moor.
The New Zealand international’s departure leaves a huge hole in the Leeds attack, and manager Christiansen is already limited in the final third given that Caleb Ekuban suffered an injury against Sunderland, and Marcus Antonsson has been sent out on loan to Blackburn Rovers.
Some fans are concerned that Wood is being sold too close to the transfer deadline, with just over a week to go until the transfer window slams shut – but manager Christiansen has moved to ease those fears.
Christiansen has told the Yorkshire Evening Post that Leeds are in a hurry to sign a striker, both because Wood is leaving and because Ekuban is injured, and the club have been preparing for the worst case scenario with Wood.
Christiansen added that some strikers have already been approached about joining Leeds, meaning the Whites will hope to wrap up additions to replace Wood before their next Championship game, next weekend’s trip to face Nottingham Forest.
“It’s obvious that we need to sign a striker. We’re in a little bit of a hurry and we need to be fast,” said Christiansen. “There is also the situation with Caleb. The good thing is we knew about the rumours a while ago. We knew there was a possibility to keep the player (Wood) but there was also the other possibility that happened on Friday and for that, everyone was prepared. We’d been working on looking at players and we have a list of players who we have approached,” he added.
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