Leeds United defender Pontus Jansson has picked up a knee injury.
As announced by the Swedish FA on Sunday, Leeds United defender Pontus Jansson has pulled out of the Sweden squad for their upcoming international games.
Jansson picked up an injury in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United, which saw the Whites drop out of the automatic promotion spots.
There were more late blows as goalkeeper Kiko Casilla was sent off for Leeds, forcing an injured Jansson to go in goal for the final stages of the defeat.
Now, Jansson’s knee injury has now been deemed serious enough for to pull out of the Sweden squad for games against Romania and Norway, with Copenhagen’s Sotirios Papagiannopoulos called up as a replacement.
Leeds now have concerns that Jansson may not be ready to feature when they return from the break to face Millwall at Elland Road, and face a nervous fortnight monitoring the centre back’s fitness.
However, if Jansson does miss out, then it may give Gaetano Berardi a chance to return at centre back, where he actually kept Jansson out of the side in the very early stages of the season.
Berardi, 30, picked up a major hamstring injury in October, and has played just seven minutes since, coming on as a substitute in the recent win at Bristol City.
Having the Swiss defender back is a huge boost, and would certainly cushion the blow of potentially losing Jansson, with Berardi able to slot straight in to defence alongside Liam Cooper, and hopefully pick up where they left off at the beginning of the campaign.
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