Speaking to the press this morning (well, those he allowed to ask questions), Steve Bruce has offered some early team news and updates on the injury front ahead of tomorrow night’s clash with Leeds.
The bad news is that defensive trio Federico Fernandez, Ciaran Clark and Paul Dummett look set to miss out again, with Javier Manquillo rated as a ’50-50′ after picking up a knock on Saturday night.
DeAndre Yedlin also remains a doubt as it is not yet clear whether his visa will be sorted in time to see him be eligible to play.
Last but not least, Bruce has hinted that it will be “too soon’ for Allan Saint-Maximin to start against Leeds, with him only training for one week over the past two months following a bad bout of COVID.
Here’s what Bruce had to say on the injury front:
“I don’t think Ciaran Clark, Federico Fernández and Paul Dummett will be quite right.
“We’ll see how Manquillo is.
“He is one of the victims of having injury and Covid issues so we’ll make an assessment on him today. He’s 50/50 for the game.”
“We’ll do an assessment on Saint-Maximin to see if he’s recovered from the 25 minutes he did.
“I would think it’s a bit too soon for him to start. We’ll see how he is today.
“He’s played 25 minutes and had a week of training in eight weeks so we have to box clever.”
So, it looks like we’ll be stuck with limited options at the back against a Leeds side who battered us 5-2 in the reverse fixture, and will also have to go again without ASM from the off.
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