Thomas Christiansen offers encouraging injury update on Leeds’ Pablo Hernandez

Follow us on Google Discover

Pablo Hernandez had to be replaced during the first-half of Leeds United’s Championship clash on Friday night.

Thomas Christiansen has told BBC Radio Leeds that he is hopeful that Pablo Hernandez being taken off during Leeds’ Championship clash with Aston Villa on Friday night was more of a preventative measure as the Spanish playmaker told him himself that he does not think it is too bad an injury.

Hernandez went down injured just before half-time, and while he came back onto the pitch after treatment, he did not stay on long, going down once again before being replaced by Kemar Roofe.

The 32-year-old has been extremely impressive lately and was looking bright against the Villans – setting up Pontus Jansson’s goal for the home side after 19 minutes – so it would be a blow if Leeds are to lose him for any significant period of time. But, while Christiansen was unable to provide a concrete assessment of the problem, he did suggest that Hernandez was fairly optimistic.

“No he said that he felt something and that was to prevent because if he continued five or 10 minutes more or in the second-half, it would be worse, but I don’t know how it is right now, but he said it should not be so much,” he told BBC Radio Leeds.

Since Hernandez came back into the side, he has certainly looked to be back at his best. He scored and then set up what proved to be the winner against Middlesbrough, and his link-up with Samuel Saiz against Barnsley also made the Whites look extremely threatening going forward.

Whether it was because of Hernandez’s substitution or not is unclear, but Leeds certainly looked a lot less dangerous going forward in the second-half, and probably managed to get themselves into Villa’s final third less often in open play than they had done in the first-half.

So it would certainly be no surprise if Christiansen was grateful to have an eight-day break between the Villa draw and their next game, away at Queens Park Rangers, to give Hernandez slightly longer than usual to recover.