Big setback for Marsch: Phil Hay shares final major injury blow for Leeds before Brentford

Leeds United correspondent Phil Hay has relayed a key injury update regarding right-back Luke Ayling.

The Whites head into the final day of the season in the relegation zone and need to better Burnley’s result to stay in the Premier League.

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Jesse Marsch is unable to call upon Ayling this afternoon for the final game of the season after he was sent off against Arsenal earlier this month.

The 30-year-old has made 26 league appearances this season, sitting out the defeat to Chelsea and draw with Brighton recently, and it doesn’t look as if he’ll be ready for the start of the 2022/23 campaign either.

Hay was present at Thorp Arch on Friday for Marsch’s pre-Brentford press conference.

As always, the Leeds manager began with an injury update, where he stated that Ayling has had knee surgery. Hay relayed the update on Twitter, claiming that the right-back is ‘looking at being out for two to four months’.

Leeds have had multiple long-term injury setbacks this season, which hasn’t changed after Marsch came in for Marcelo Bielsa at the end of February.

Tyler Roberts, Junior Firpo, Patrick Bamford, Adam Forshaw and Stuart Dallas have all suffered serious issues under the American, with Ayling now the latest.

With the 30-year-old being a stalwart for Leeds for several seasons now, and posting the squad’s best tackling average of 2.8 per match, his absence not only today but potentially into the start of 2022/23 will come as a major injury setback for the Whites.

It seems as if the vice-captain has been playing through the pain since September and will now return to training in the autumn. Therefore, this appears to be the final injury blow for Marsch in a dreadful campaign,