The Leeds United teenager has not been involved for the first-team in any of their pre-season friendlies to date.
If you asked Leeds United supporters which young player they thought had the most chance of breaking through over the summer, in the same vein as Ronaldo Vieira 12 months earlier, the majority would have surely said Mallik Wilks.
After all, the 18-year-old striker is widely regarded as Leeds’ most exciting teenager yet to be thrust into the spotlight, and if he continues on his current trajectory he should be scoring regularly for the Whites’ senior side for years to come.
Unfortunately for the player and his fans, he will have to wait a little longer having not been included in the first-team fold as new Leeds boss Thomas Christiansen prepares for the challenges ahead.
While under-23 player Conor Shaughnessy has traveled with Leeds’ more familiar faces for their pre-season tour of Austria, and both he and Paudie O’Connor got run-outs in the home-based matches prior to the trip, Wilks was nowhere to be seen.
If injury has robbed him of the chance to feature this summer it is a cruel blow, yet if Christiansen has simply opted not to take a closer look it is a mistake on the part of the new Leeds boss.
With Lee Erwin deemed surplus to requirements (despite impressing in the first two matches of the summer) and Marcus Antonsson looking as wasteful in front of goal as ever, there could have been a chance for Wilks to prove his worth.
Even with the likes of Samu Saiz, Caleb Ekuban and Ezgjan Alioski arriving in a massive overhaul, it is important to give youth a chance and one can only hope Wilks gets his chances at Leeds in due course.
After all, he is far too good to be left playing under-23 football for long.
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