Marcelo Bielsa has confirmed to Leeds Live that Leeds United defender Diego Llorente is back and healthy again.
Llorente has not played for Leeds since signing for them in the summer, after picking up an injury issue while on international duty.
The centre-back has now recovered from that problem though.
Bielsa has even suggested that he could play at the weekend, although ideally Leeds would like to get him some minutes playing for their under-23 side before throwing him into Premier League action.
“Llorente, he’s healthy. He’s in condition to play,” Bielsa said.
“The ideal thing would be for him to play with the under-23s before he plays with the first team because it’s been a while since he’s played now.
“We will see, we hope we don’t have unnecessary, or a situation where we have to accelerate his process.”
Leeds fans have been highly anticipating the recovery of Llorente, as there is a feeling that he could break into their starting line-up.
Leeds have been relatively solid at the back, but Llorente may have a chance of displacing Liam Cooper in time, given his obvious quality.
If Llorente is to start for Leeds’ under-23 side soon then his first game for them could come on December 13th, when they take on Aston Villa.
Bielsa’s senior side are in action against Chelsea this weekend, and it will be interesting to see if Llorente is included in the squad as a substitute.
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