Liam Cooper was pulled out of the Leeds United squad during the warm-up ahead of Saturday’s game.
In comments reported by Leeds Live, Marcelo Bielsa has suggested that Liam Cooper’s injury was not serious and added that he appreciated the Leeds captain doing everything he could to play against Sheffield Wednesday.
Leeds looked set to go into the game with the Owls with the same lineup for the tenth game running. But there was late drama as Cooper had to be withdrawn from the side during the warm-up, with Gaetano Berardi coming in to sit alongside Pontus Jansson at centre-back.
But the setback did not hurt the Whites as they kept a clean sheet and extended their advantage over Sheffield United to three points, with Jack Harrison scoring the game’s only goal shortly after the hour mark.
Leeds fans will now be hoping that Cooper can be back in contention to feature in the final four games of the season. And Bielsa hinted that he expects to have the skipper back for Friday’s clash with Wigan.
“We don’t think so,” he said, as reported by Leeds Live, when asked if Cooper’s injury was thought to be serious.
“He feels a pain in a strange muscle, in a muscle players don’t normally suffer injuries, but with this pain he couldn’t play the game. I highly value the fact Cooper did everything he could to play the game and at the same it’s important to have the experience to say he couldn’t play the game.”
Berardi’s performance was extremely impressive given that he has not started a first-team game since October and would have expected that run to continue beyond this weekend.
But having Cooper – who also missed the draw with Swansea in August in similar circumstances – back will be a big boost. His form over the course of this season has been outstanding, and he will be desperate to lead the side towards securing that top two spot in the final weeks of the campaign.
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