Kalvin Phillips has labelled Luke Ayling’s return to Leeds United action at Elland Road as ’10/10′, as the Manchester City midfielder posted on Instagram.
At the start of September, Luke Ayling returned from a long injury lay-off when he came off the bench during Leeds’ heavy defeat away at Brentford.
That’s when postponements to games and the international break kicked in, which would have disrupted with the defender’s rhythm in wanting to get back to full flow.
Well, on Sunday, as Leeds and Villa contested an aggressive and cagey affair in Yorkshire, which resulted in both teams walking away with a clean sheet, Ayling came off the bench for a home game for the first time this season.
Given his popularity, Ayling got a warm reception, then when he posted on Instagram that it’s ‘great to be back’ playing at ER, in the comments section, Phillips simply posted ‘Still a 10 out of 10’.
Others such as Raphinha used emojis to praise the all-action defender, whilst Sheffield United striker, Oli McBurnie called him ‘batman’ because of his use of a mask.
INJURY ALSO HURTING PHILLIPS
As Leeds tried to battle relegation last season, Phillips, alongside many other Leeds players, found himself in the treatment room for one injury or another.
Now that the hard-hitting midfielder is in a new environment in the colours of Manchester City, those issues have followed him to the Etihad.
He recently underwent successful surgery on a shoulder issue which is set to keep him out of action for a number of weeks and puts him at risk of missing the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Since leaving Leeds, Phillips’ game time has gone down the drain as it is, so this recent setback hasn’t helped, and now he is facing a race against time to be ready for Qatar.
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