Some Leeds United players honoured stricken goalkeeper Jamal Blackman on Saturday.
Speaking to The Yorkshire Evening Post, Marcelo Bielsa has praised his Leeds United players for what they did for Jamal Blackman during Saturday’s 2-0 win over Bristol City at Elland Road.
United trio Kemar Roofe, Kalvin Phillips and Liam Cooper held up a Leeds’ goalkeepers shirt with the message ‘Get well soon Jamal’ on the back.
It was a tribute to the Chelsea keeper, whose loan at Elland Road was terminated earlier this month after breaking his leg during an Under-23 outing.
And Bielsa, rather hilariously, admits that he thought his players were honouring Elland Road’s groundskeepers after mistaking the green shirt for a gardening element.
“I’m just finding out that the players showed Blackman’s shirt. I saw the green shirt,” he told The Yorkshire Evening Post.
“Let me tell you what I thought at that moment. At the beginning I thought it was linked to the gardeners of the stadium because they always wear green.
“And I didn’t see it was Blackman’s shirt with a message in it. So I’m very happy that the team-mattes did that to Jamal.”
Blackman, whose only two Leeds appearances came in the Carabao Cup, was clearly a popular figure in the Whites’ dressing room.
It was a very classy gesture from a group of players who seem to specialise in class this season, whether it’s the brand of football under the renowned Argentine or merely acknowledging the less fortunate.
Bielsa’s side, who sit third in the Championship, host Reading in West Yorkshire tomorrow night.
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