Jay-Roy Grot has recently been seen more often amongst Leeds United’s under-23 side.
In what has already been a very trying 2018 for Leeds fans, one of the last things that they would have needed was to hear that their January signing is now set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
The club confirmed on Wednesday that Tyler Roberts is set to miss an extended period due to an ankle injury sustained in training this week, and that will undoubtedly be a major blow for Paul Heckingbottom as he looks to get the Whites’ play-off charge back on track.
While Roberts is certainly one of the future, the money spent on him suggested that the club saw him being a player who could make a decent impact for the team this season, and thus, not having him for the foreseeable future is certainly a setback.
For Jay-Roy Grot however, he should look at his teammate’s desperately unfortunate situation as a potential opportunity to prove himself after an extremely difficult start to life at Elland Road.
Grot is still awaiting his first goal for the first-team following his summer switch, and the fans are still to be convinced that he has the potential to make the grade with the Championship club.
The Dutchman has only been in the matchday squad for one of Leeds’ last four games however, having now seemingly moved into a position where he is on the first-team radar, but also being used by the under-23 side.
And while some players may look at the involvement with Carlos Corberan’s team as a demotion and a possible sign that they could be in danger of being discarded in the future, Grot arguably now has all the incentive he could need to make the most of his time with the under-23s.
With Roberts sidelined, Heckingbottom has Pierre-Michel Lasogga, Kemar Roofe and Caleb Ekuban available to him before he has to start looking for alternative options if necessary – and that could potentially involve having a look at who is impressing for the under-23s.
Grot has looked bright for the youngsters so far, and that suggests that his spell with the under-23s may do his confidence the world of good ahead of a potential permanent recall to the first-team fold.
And with Roberts now out of the picture for the time-being, Grot should hold onto the fact that his teammate’s terrible luck may bring about that recall much sooner than he would have previously expected.
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